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| Modest Drop in Galesburg-Area Unemployment in February |
Local unemployment rates are down slightly over the first two months of this year.
Figures from the Illinois Department of Employment Security released this week show the City of Galesburg's jobless rate dropped 3-tenths of a point to 12.7 percent in February. The decline in Knox County is 1-tenth to 12.4 percent and Warren County's rate is 10.8 percent, down two-tenths - the 13th lowest rate among Illinois' 102 counties. The rate for the Galesburg area - which is comprised of Galesburg, Knox and Warren counties, is 12 percent.
The state's 12 metropolitan areas recorded unemployment rates that were above previous-year levels for the 33rd month in a row. The Rockford metro jobless rate is the highest at 18.6 percent.
The rates are also significantly higher in the Galesburg area compared to February of 2009. Warren County had the lowest rate then at 7.2 percent and has had the biggest increase - 3.6 percentage points. Galesburg's unemployment rate has shot up 2.8 percent in the past year, Knox County's by three percent and the Galesburg area by 3.1 percent.
Officials with IDES say the Galesburg area lost 700 non-farm payroll jobs over the 12 month period. The biggest losses were in the Government, Professional-Business Services and Leisure-Hospitality sectors.
While the local month-to-month unemployment rates were down, that's not the case in surrounding counties. The increases between February of 2009 and this past February range from 2-tenths of a percent in Fulton County to 9-tenths in both Henderson and Mercer counties. Fulton and Henderson counties are approaching 15 percent unemployment. Mercer County's rate of 17.3 percent is the 6th highest in Illinois. |
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| 04 02 10 by Newsroom |
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