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Unemployment Continues Downward Slide
Unemployment in the region, whether people are finding jobs or the labor force is declining, is going down, and the state is praising the decline.

The Illinois Department of Employment Security's jobless figures for December were released yesterday, and they indicate that the City of Galesburg's unemployment figure took a sharp drop, down to eight-point-five percent for December. That's down seven-tenths from November, and down over two-and-a-half percent from the same period a year ago.

As a whole, Knox County's unemployment rate is currently at eight point two percent, down one-half of one percent.

Put that and Warren County's seven point six percent jobless rate which was down only one tenth, and the state says the Galesburg area unemployment rate at an even eight percent.

In the region, the state says year over year, non-farm payroll jobs dropped by 375. But that figure could have been worse had the education-health services sector not added 275 jobs during that period.

Illinois Department of Employment Security Director Maureen O'Donnell says every one of the state's 102 counties saw its unemployment rate decline in December on a year over year basis, the first time that's happened since 1974.

O'Donnell says it's a good sign as the state continues to recover from the economic downturn.
01 28 11 by Newsroom
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