East-central Illinois unemployment figures released (Thursday) are showing jobless rates rose last month. The numbers in Iroquois and Vermilion counties were up in July. But the figures are still well below where they were in July of last year.

Kankakee County unemployment was at 6.2% in July. That's down from 8.2% in 2014. The Illinois Department of Employment Security numbers show unemployment rose in Vermilion County from 6.5 percent of the workforce in June to 6.7 percent in July. The city of Danville's unemployment rate also rose, from 7.3 percent in June to 7.6 percent. But while the numbers are higher from the previous month, they are still down from where they were one year ago.

Vermilion County's July 2015 unemployment rate of 6.7 percent is down from 8.8 percent in July of last year.
In Iroquois County, the unemployment rate rose slightly last month from 4.7 to 4.9 percent. All counties in the WGFA-listening area saw the jobless rates rise last month but they were still below where they stood one year ago.

The numbers from the report show Champaign County's unemployment rate rose slightly from 4.9 percent in June to 5 percent last month.

94.1 WGFA