By The Associated Press

CHICAGO - The unemployment rate in the Twin Cities fell slightly in August.

The state Department of Employment Security released the monthly unemployment numbers Thursday, which showed the rate dropped from 7.8 percent in August 2011 to 7.3 percent last month in Bloomington-Normal.

Statewide, the unemployment rate fell in all but one of the state's dozen metro areas. Only the Decatur area had higher unemployment last month than a year earlier. The local jobless rate increased from 11.2 percent in August 2011 to 11.4 percent.

Other areas saw significant drops: 10.5 percent to 8.8 in Chicago, 9.3 to 8.8 percent in Champaign-Urbana area and 9 percent to 8 percent in Peoria.

The metro unemployment report uses year-ago data for its comparisons. It shows that despite statewide unemployment increases over the past few months most areas statewide have better job rates than they did at the end of last summer.

The state jobless rate was 9.1 percent in August.