Bloomington-Normal jobless rate rises since January 2016

Posted on March 17, 2017
Job application
The Bloomington-Normal jobless rate rose to 6.1 percent in January. (Photo courtesy Facebook/IDES)

By WJBC Staff

SPRINGFIELD – The unemployment rate rose in most Illinois metro areas over the past year, including Bloomington-Normal.

More than half of Illinois’ metro areas saw an increase in the jobless rate from January 2016 to January 2017. Unemployment in The Twin Cities inched up from 5.9 to 6.1 percent over the last year. State Department of Employment Security spokesperson Bob Gough said the remaining areas saw slight drops.

“The decrease we had in Chicago and the Quad Cities unemployment rate is once again offset by increased unemployment rates in most of the other metro areas,” Gough said.

The Bloomington-Normal area lost 2,200 hundred jobs since January 2016.

Rockford suffered the biggest jump to more than 11 percent in January, although Gough attributes that to the shut down of the Fiat Chrysler plant. Just five metro areas experienced job growth over the year.

The Twin Cities rate is second lowest in the state behind the Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights market.

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