By Eric Stock
SPRINGFIELD – Bloomington-Normal lost 1,100 jobs in 2016, but the unemployment rate dropped over the year.
According to the Illinois Department of Employment Security, the Twin Cities jobless rate fell to 5 percent in January, down from 5.6 in December 2015. All 14 metro areas saw drops in their unemployment rates drop last year, even though six of those markets lost jobs.
Peoria saw the biggest job loss of 3,000, due largely to Caterpillar’s layoffs. Lake County saw the largest job gains.
Only Champaign-Urbana and Springfield have lower unemployment in the Twin Cities at 4.9 percent. Danville has the highest unemployment rate at 7.2 percent.
Eric Stock can be reached at eric.stock@cumulus.com.
