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Numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show the national
average unemployment rate is 3.8% for August. That's up 0.3%
from the month before. At the sixth highest of all states and
the District of Columbia, Illinois' unemployment rate is 4%.
Some regions in Illinois are doing better than others.
According to BLS, outside the Cape Girardeau, MO-IL region
sitting at 3.3% and the St. Louis, MO-IL region sitting at 3.6%,
the Chicago area has the lowest regional unemployment rate of
4.2%. The Carbondale/Marion area is at 5.1% and Rockford is at
6.8%.
The northern township of Zion has a rate of 7.6%, but according
to Mayor Billy Mckinney, the township has recently added several
hundred new jobs.
"One of the biggest things that has happened within the last
year has been our deal with the real estate company Imperien,"
McKinney told The Center Square. "It's one of the largest, if
not the largest, real estate deals in Zion in many years and
perhaps in the entire Chicagoland area."
Illinois and Chicago have struggled to keep businesses in the
state over the past couple of years as Guggenheim, Boeing,
Tyson, Caterpillar and Citadel, among others, have decided to
move their corporate offices out of the state.
McKinney said Zion has struggled ever since the state decided to
close one of its biggest employers.
"Needless to say, this has been important for us to bring these
new businesses in because our tax base was decimated by the loss
of the nuclear plant, which was closed in 1998," McKinney said.
The jobs coming to Zion are a change for the state as recent
unemployment numbers have shown Illinois has struggled more than
other states to keep jobs.
The industries hit the hardest in Illinois during June were the
professional and business services sector, which lost 5,400
jobs. The manufacturing industry lost 2,100 jobs, and the trade,
transportation and utilities sector lost 2,000 jobs in the
month.
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