For the second month in a row unemployment rates are up across East Central Illinois. The latest numbers from the Illinois Department of Employment Security show Iroquois County at 3.7% in July and Ford County at 4.4%. Iroquois was at 3.4% in June. Both Ford and Iroquois though are still below what they were a year ago. Vermilion County’s jobless rate rose from 4.7 percent in June to 5.4 in July. Danville’s unemployment rate also rose, reaching 6.5 percent in July. It had been 5.3 percent in June.
Across the area, Champaign County’s jobless rate rose from 3.8 percent in June to 4.2 percent in July. In Edgar County the unemployment rate was 3.8 percent in June, but climbed to 4.2 in July. In Iroquois County the jobless rate also rose slightly…going from 3.4 to 3.7 percent last month.
Kankakee County unemployment was at 4.6% in July…down from 5.3 in July of 2018.
Illinois businesses added jobs in all fourteen metro areas, with the largest percentage increases in: Carbondale-Marion (+2.3%, +1,300), Lake - Kenosha (+2.3%, +9,900), Danville (+2.2%, +600), and Rockford (+2.0%, +3,000). The Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights metro division was up (+1.3% or +47,700).
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