By The Associated Press

BLOOMINGTON - Unemployment rates dropped in November for 11 of Illinois' 12 metro areas.

The Illinois Department of Employment Security on Thursday reported that the Bloomington-Normal unemployment rate fell to a state-best 6.1 percent in Nov. 2012 from 6.8 percent last year. The last time the November rate was lower was in 2008 when it was 5.0 percent. This was the fifth consecutive month the rate has been equal to or below the year-ago level.

Decatur is the only metro area to see an increase in the unemployment rate for the month. Decatur's rate stood at 10.2 percent last month, compared to 9.8 percent in November 2011.

The areas seeing the largest decline were Rockford, Chicago-Joliet-Naperville and Kankakee-Bradley. Rockford dropped 1.3 percentage points to 10.5 percent last month. The Chicago region dropped 1.2 points to 8.3 percent, while Kankakee-Bradley fell 1.1 points to 10 percent.

Employment Security Director Jay Rowell saID the falling unemployment rates show that Illinois' economy continues to improve.  

Zach Dietmeier contributed to this story.  Zach can be reached at zach.dietmeier@cumulus.com.