* Tribune…

Though people often focus on unemployment rates as a measure of economic health, another telling data point is how many people are so discouraged with the job search that they’re dropping out of the labor force altogether.

A newly released survey found good news: Fewer unemployed Americans are giving up looking for work. But that’s not the case in Illinois, where more people seem to be throwing up their hands.

A survey conducted by Harris Poll for Express Employment Professionals, a staffing agency, in March and April found 44 percent of jobless people in Illinois said they had completely given up looking for a job. That’s worse than the 41 percent who said the same last year and the 33 percent who said so in 2015.

Nationally, by contrast, 33 percent of jobless Americans in the recent survey said they’d stopped looking for work, an improvement from 40 percent last year.

“Economic and political factors unique to Illinois may be at play here,” Bob Funk, CEO of the staffing agency, said in a news release. Harris surveyed 1,500 jobless Americans, including 100 in Illinois.

Emphasis added because firm conclusions should never be drawn from a poll of 100 people.