* AP…

The Illinois Department of Employment Security says jobless rates fell in every Illinois metro area in February. It was the 12th straight month of across-the-board improvement.

The department said Tuesday in its monthly report on the state’s metro areas that while nine of the 14 tracked areas added jobs in February, the Peoria, Bloomington, Carbondale-Marion and Quad Cities areas all lost jobs.

However, the Bloomington area still posted the lowest unemployment rate in the state last month at 5 percent. The highest was the 7.3 percent rate in the Decatur area.

Chicago-area unemployment fell to 6.6 percent in February from 8.8 percent a year earlier.

* From IDES…

Illinois businesses added jobs in nine metros. Largest increases: Danville (+3.5 percent, +1,000), Champaign-Urbana (+2.3 percent, +2,400) and Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights Metro Division (+1.7 percent, +58,200). Decreases: Carbondale-Marion (-0.7 percent, -400), Bloomington (-0.5 percent, -500) and Peoria (-0.5 percent, -900). The industry sectors recording job growth in the majority of metros were Retail Trade (10 of 14), Government (9 of 14), Mining and Construction (8 of 14), Transportation, Warehousing and Public Utilities (8 of 14) and Education and Health Services (8 of 14).

“More Illinoisans are finding work as unemployment rates continue falling across the state. However, over-the-year, nearly 85 percent of the state’s job growth occurred in the northeastern part of the state. This regional job growth has masked losses in Peoria, Bloomington, Carbondale-Marion and the Quad Cities.” IDES Director Jeff Mays said. “Job growth needs to occur in all areas for a successful recovery.”

The not seasonally adjusted Illinois rate was 6.5 percent in February 2015 and stood at 12.2 percent at its peak in this economic cycle in January 2010. Nationally, the not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.8 percent in February and 10.6 percent in January 2010 at its peak. The unemployment rate identifies those who are out of work and looking for work and is not tied to collecting unemployment insurance benefits.

* Charts…

Discuss.

       

38 Comments - A Jack - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 10:34 am: Shocking news for a non-RTW state. - Wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 10:36 am: The Rauner turnaround is going great guns. - How Ironic - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 10:38 am: Just think how much better it would have been, if only we could pay our workers less, and worry less about possible employee actions. I’m wondering when Rauner is going to fold this bit of good news into his daily rant against organized labor. - Skeptic - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 10:40 am: I’m wondering when Rauner is going to fold this bit of good news into his daily rant against organized labor. I’d bet “yes” “Job growth needs to occur in all areas for a successful recovery.” That’s his angle. - Formerly Known As... - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 10:42 am: That puts us where, around 35 of the 50 states? - Das Kapital - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 10:42 am: Good! Time for Rauner’s income tax increase. - A Jack - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 10:44 am: Perhaps these are all jobs that left East Dundee yesterday. - Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 10:46 am: I saw yesterday that Rockford’s unemployment rate dropped three points in the last year. Illinois’ unemployment rate dropped 1.7% in the last year and is now 6%. Indiana’s unemployment rate is 5.9%, virtually unchanged from a year ago (6%). This should finally end the narrative that Illinois should be economically like Indiana. No thank you. Indiana is 31st and 38th in median household income and per capita income. Illinois is 18th and 15th, respectively. - PublicServant - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 10:47 am: This unemployment number going down is a problem. Pretty soon these worker ingrates are going to start asking for raises. Now that isn’t an issue on the individual level. You just say no. If they protest, you fire them and hire a non-ingrate who will keep his mouth shut…Hey, how’s that HB-1 visa thing coming along anyway? Also, the union fat cats seem to talk for a lot of workers, and I can’t fir’em all at once without screwing up my profit gravy train, so we gotta get rid of those unions. Not only do they make it harder to fire ingrates, they actually try to buy back our bought pols. - A recent conversation at “The Job Creators Club” /s - Jack Stephens - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 10:51 am: @grandson: And finally in Indiana, the xtians are no longer being persecuted. - Crispy - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 10:51 am: Hey, maybe now Rauner can rethink his “turnaround” strategy of badmouthing Illinois to boost business investment./s - Apocalypse Now - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 10:52 am: Thanks to great leadership by Governor Rauner Illinois is moving forward on the jobs front. - PublicServant - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 11:09 am: In spite of the lack of leadership by Governor Rauner, Illinois is moving forward on the jobs front. - Fixed it for ya. - A Jack - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 11:11 am: I am sure Rauner would like to take credit, the only problem is that this is the 12th straight month of improvement, yet he has only been in office two months. And during those two months he did nothing but give speeches about how bad the Illinois economy is doing. - John A Logan - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 11:17 am: 10 O’clock and all is well! - BlameBruceRauner - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 11:23 am: Well, Well, Well. Hey Bruce its time to start praising IL business for adding jobs, and stop trashing the state so much . Remember you have to balance the bad with the good. The continual cycle of economic doom and gloom isn’t governing its grandstanding. - Demoralized - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 11:26 am: I’m going to make a mental note of this and see if IDES is singing the same tune in 6 months. I’m betting if we get exactly the same statistics in 6 months the praise for the “recovery” will be gushing. - Anonymous - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 11:35 am: The Mitch McConnell recovery has finally reached Illinois! /snark - Downstate Illinois - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 11:37 am: The unemployment numbers don’t mean what they used to when you consider the labor participation rate has plummeted since the last recession. The last time Illinois had numbers this low our economy was booming. Would anyone here use that word to describe our current economy? - From the 'Dale to HP - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 11:38 am: Makes Downstate not fighting for a progressive income tax make all the more sense. - Skeptic - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 11:40 am: Downstate: By your logic then the participation rate has steadily declined for the past 12 months. Do you have any data to back that up? - Chris - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 11:42 am: Bloomington *lost* 500 jobs and had their UE rate drop 1.8 points? That’s either a *ton* of discouraged workers (maybe retirees??) or a lot of people leaving…neither of which is actually a good sign. - Rich Miller - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 11:44 am: ===neither of which is actually a good sign.=== Lots of Bloomington area folks have pension plans, so retirements in these uncertain times are to be expected. People, the population is aging. We’ve known this was gonna happen for a very long time. - A guy - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 11:54 am: Oh, I don’t know. Good news is good news. More people working = more people paying taxes. Raising tax payers is a good policy. Glad to see progress. - nona - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 11:57 am: === Makes Downstate not fighting for a progressive income tax make all the more sense. === I wonder if the economies in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota are worse than Downstate Illinois, since all of those states have graduated income tax? - Very Fed Up - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 12:01 pm: Hard to make an intelligent argument why Rahm does not deserve another 4 years. Great news for Chicago and Illinois. - Demoralized - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 1:07 pm: ==Good news is good news.== Exactly. Getting some to say that with regard to these statistics is impossible. Unemployment increasing. Bad news. Unemployment decreasing. Also bad news. I doubt those that believe that stop to think about how ridiculous their statements sound. - Six Degrees of Separation - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 1:07 pm: US Census estimate for 2014 showed an exodus from McLean County, which is definitely against the norm for that usually-robust growth area even in lean times. - Anon - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 1:29 pm: About time to admit that the economic and fiscal policies of the previous administration weren’t so bad after all? - A guy - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 1:31 pm: Demo, Amen. The cycle is right for an economic upturn. Why anyone would not find that positive is beyond me. When the economy is buzzing, there’s a lot less concern about what someone else is making. For me, we can’t get there soon enough. I’ll happily accept the good news and hope for even more. - Formerly Known As... - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 1:40 pm: ==then the participation rate has steadily declined== Labor force participation rate declined the first eight months of last year. Improved Sep 14 to Jan 15. Declined again in Feb. Check IDES website for more. - Formerly Known As... - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 2:02 pm: ==The not seasonally adjusted Illinois rate was 6.5 percent in February 2015 and stood at 12.2 percent at its peak== Why the change in focus to the ==not seasonally adjusted rate==? The standard measure of Illinois unemployment rate, which is the seasonally adjusted number, topped out at 11.2. Are they trying to make the ==Rauner Recovery== look better than it is? Sheesh. He just got there. - Arsenal - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 2:08 pm: “Are they trying to make the ==Rauner Recovery== look better than it is?” Nah, c’mon, up to now, they’ve been downplaying every other bit of good economic news, and even this release is pretty stoic. They can’t very well claim things are getting better before he even introduces his first “Turnaround Agenda” bill. It’s probably just sloppiness from a gang that is still getting its act together. - Skeptic - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 2:38 pm: FKA: I thought “seasonally adjusted” would mean that it accounts for fewer people working in the cold weather months. To me (and maybe I’m misunderstanding) “not seasonally adjusted” would make the numbers look even better. - Rapscallion - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 3:34 pm: Absolute employment is far more important than “unemployment rate” when it comes to the prosperity of a state. The last time I looked a few months ago, Illinois employment still hadn’t recovered 150,000 from our peak employment rate, while Indiana had regained all but 7,000 of its lost jobs, and I believe Wisconsin regained almost all the lost jobs as well. I know that retirements, specially public sector, skew the unemployment rate, but if Illinois isn’t replacing jobs with new, high income workers, to replace the lost jobs, that means our gross state product isn’t recovered and the state hasn’t recovered the tax base for the revenue it needs. Overburdening the current taxpayers with lower wages and fewer jobs to tax is hardly fair. It’s interesting to note that those communities with the highest private sector union participation (Danville, Decatur, Rockford) seem to have the most job recovery problems, while those with the least private sector unions (Naperville, Arlington Heights, Bloomington) seem to be doing a bit better. Could it be that all the forced unionization in those high unemployment areas is a factor, and that the apparent reduction in unemployment there is due to fewer former union members seeking work? - Demoralized - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 3:51 pm: @Rapscallion You should be writing speeches for the Governor. - Formerly Known As... - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 5:27 pm: Skeptic - kind of. Seasonal adjustments compensate for the weather, holidays and so on. eg, A spurt of hiring occurs in retail and shipping jobs every year as Xmas and Hanukkah approach. The not seasonally adjusted numbers would show a large increase of jobs before Xmas but a rapid decline when they are all laid off after Xmas. There are similar trends in many other fields and times of year. The seasonally adjusted numbers try to adjust for these seasonal fluctuations and better measure what is really happening. - Formerly Known As... - Wednesday, Apr 1, 15 @ 5:29 pm: ==It’s probably just sloppiness from a gang that is still getting its act together.== Well said @Arsenal. We will know more if this repeats in the future. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.