 Unemployment
numbers released Thursday show the jobless rate in
August slipped to 10.1 percent, down from 10.3 percent in July. In
August of 2009, Illinois' unemployment rate sat at 10.6 percent.
Illinois' unemployment figures are still higher than the national
average. Across the country, the jobless rate ticked to 9.6 percent
in August.Greg Rivara with the Illinois Department of
Unemployment Security said the new numbers are "better news."
"Trends, not monthly reports, are the best economic indicators.
In Illinois those trends are optimistic and moving in the right
direction. (Unemployment is) still stubbornly high, but we have been
dropping steadily for the past five months straight, and we've had
steady or dropping unemployment rates for eight consecutive months."
Illinois lost a total of 4,200 jobs in August. But the state saw
lots of new hiring in construction and manufacturing.
Rivara said the state's manufacturing base has been growing since
January.
Mark Denzler, vice president of the Illinois Manufacturer's
Association, said after many months of idled production, companies
are ordering once again.
"Manufacturing has picked up slightly this year. We've added
about 13,400 jobs since February. Companies are filling those
shelves again. They got low on goods and manufacturing orders are
up."
But many of those orders have been for companies that slashed
productivity and work force.
"I think in a lot of cases these are jobs (of) folks who've been
laid off and companies are hiring people back," said Denzler.
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Rivara said even though many of the hires may not be new hires,
it's still great news for folks who are back on the job.
"We have nearly 38,000 people working today that didn't work at
Christmas ... and those jobs have been added in some key
categories."
But Denzler is quick to point out that while Illinois has added
over 13,000 manufacturing jobs in 2010, other Midwestern states have
added more.
"All of our neighboring states, in the last year, have added more
manufacturing jobs than Illinois. So we generally trail other states
when it comes to manufacturing recovery."
If manufacturing and construction added the most jobs in August,
financial services and education and health care saw large declines.
Rivara said the next measure of the economy won't come for a
while -- he's waiting for federal numbers -- but he believes the
state's economy is making the turn.
"Until this year we've had 33 months of consistently increasing
unemployment rates. That negative trend is tough to break. ... But
the trends so far this year are moving in the right direction."
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By BENJAMIN YOUNT]
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