The unemployment rate in the City of Galesburg is much improved from where it was a year ago.
Preliminary data released Thursday from the Illinois Department of Employment Security shows the city saw a 1.1 percent drop in the unemployment rate in August of last year to this year’s 6.2 percent. Those numbers are reflected in a drop of in the unemployed number of 138 despite the employed number only increasing by 31.
While the year-over-year numbers show improvement, the city actually lost jobs from the month of July and had a tenth of a percent worse unemployment rate as a result.
In July, IDES reported there were 10,930 employed in the county. In August, they report only 10,840. However, the change in the number of people seeking work also decreased from 714 to 711.
This change was also seen in several other cities where labor force numbers dropped across the board.
Unemployment in Knox County has improved significantly from last year but didn’t change much from the month prior.
The county saw a 5.5 percent unemployment rate for the month of August a change of 1.2 percent from last year (6.7%).
IDES numbers shows that from August of 2021 to August of 2022 Knox County saw 55 more people become employed while losing 247 in the unemployed number.
From July to August of this year, Knox County saw a drop in its labor force of 157.
That change is also seen in neighboring counties as well. Fulton, Henry, Stark, and Warren County saw a tenth of a percent improvement in their unemployment numbers — again with a drop in total labor force numbers.
Peoria County’s unemployment rate remained at 5.8 percent despite losing over 500 to its labor force in the last month.
The State of Illinois has a 4.5 percent unemployment rate. The national average is 3.7.
