March 31--The city of Chicago's unemployment rate climbed to 7.2 percent last month from 6.9 percent the year before, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
The unemployment rate rose in all Illinois metro areas, partially because more people are returning to the labor force to look for jobs, the department said.
In the Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights metro area, which has seen its unemployment rate decline for months even as joblessness rose in much of the rest of the state, the rate rose to 6.7 percent in February from 6.5 percent a year earlier.
Still, it added 62,100 jobs, primarily in leisure and hospitality, educational and health services, government, retail trade and construction. It lost 1,600 manufacturing jobs.
The Chicago area was among eight metropolitan areas in the state that added jobs in February. Six metro areas lost jobs, including Bloomington, the Quad Cities and Carbondale-Marion.
The unemployment rate measures the people who are out of work and looking for work.
aelejalderuiz@tribpub.com
