Knox County’s unemployment rate for the month of October was 5.6 percent according to data released Thursday from the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
That’s a decrease of almost 3 points from September when the county unemployment rate was 8.5 percent. Still, a surging number of claims for unemployment insurance is a chilling sign.
The number of unemployment insurance claims made in October for Knox County is at a startling level. With 811 filings for unemployment, other than this spring, you have to go back to 2004 to find a month with that many filings.
Leisure and hospitality is a sector on which Knox County heavily relies. About 6.5 percent of private-sector wages in the county are from the leisure and hospitality industry.
The number of these jobs has shrunk 21 percent statewide since January.
The number of nonfarm jobs decreased over-the-year in all fourteen Illinois metropolitan areas in October.
Knox County’s labor force that has been dropping for decades shows some signs that a bottom has been reached.
Over the last four years, the number of people working or seeking work in Knox County contracted 3.6 percent.
In the previous four years, it contracted 7.6 percent.
Warren County’s unemployment rate dropped from 5.7 to 3.7 percent, one of the lowest among any Illinois counties.
There have been 186 claims in Warren, which are closer to the surge in unemployment seen in Spring than in recent months.
