Infogram
By WJBC Staff
SPRINGFIELD – The over-the-year unemployment rate fell in all Illinois metro areas last month.
Bloomington-Normal’s jobless rate fell over a half point to 3.8 percent, tied with Champaign-Urbana for the lowest in the state. Bloomington-Normal added 300 jobs over the last year.
Rockford saw the biggest drop from March of last year to march of this year at more than three percent.
State Department of Employment Security spokesman Bob Gough said the numbers are a good sign.
“When you go across all of the metros and you see that we had 10 of the 14 metros actually gain jobs, we only had four that lost jobs and saw pretty significant gains in the Chicago area,” Gough said. “Also Quad Cities had a nice pick up of 3,ooo as well. So I think we are starting to see some much better indicators now.”
Gough noted it was nice to see one industry pick up.
“Looking at the fact that manufacturing jobs increased in nine of the 14 metros, I think that’s certainly something that stands out and is very positive,” Gough said.
Metro areas that lost jobs over the year include Carbondale, Danville, Springfield and East St. Louis. The largest over-the-year job losses were seen in Springfield where jobs were down by 3,400.
