The Illinois Department of Employment Security’s December jobs report shows unemployment rates are up 4% from last year. Locally unemployment rates increased only slightly, White County’s unemployment rate increased .5% (from 3.8% to 4.3%), Hamilton County had an increase of .6% (from 3.2% to 3.8%), Hardin County’s unemployment rate, which was already high, increased .2% (from 6.1% to 6.3%), Wayne County also saw an increase of only .2% (from 4.3% to 4.5%), Edwards County increased .8% (from 4.3% to 5.1%),
The largest increases in unemployment rates locally were in Saline County, which saw an increase of 1.6% (from 5.0% to 6.6% from December 2019 to December 2020), Wabash County, an increase of 1.4% (from 3.0% to 4.4%), and Gallatin County, an increase of 1.0% (from 4.5% to 5.5%).
Statewide, Illinois unemployment rate for December sits at 7.5%, compared to 3.5% covering the same month one year ago. The report shows that non-farm job losses increased in all fourteen metropolitan areas from a year ago. Nationally, the not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.5 percent in December 2020.
