Jan. 28--The unemployment rate in the Chicago area was unchanged for December, but the rest of the state didn't fare as well.
Unemployment rates increased in 11 Illinois metro areas compared to a year ago, according to data released Thursday by the Illinois Department of Employment Security and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"Illinois took another hit on jobs, and many metro areas continue to absorb these hits," Jeff Mays, director of IDES, said in a news release. "Since the previous job peak in 2007, only 3 out of 14 metro areas have regained the jobs lost during the recession."
There were 26,800 jobs added in the Chicago metro area, resulting in no change to the unemployment rate, which stood at 5.6 percent. The rate is unchanged because new people entered the workforce, among other reasons. Most of the job gains were in professional and business services, construction, and education and health services.
St. Louis, Davenport-Moline-Rock Island and Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights are the only metro areas that reported no change.
The Peoria metro area continued to have the largest increase in unemployment, going from 6.2 percent last year to 7.0 percent this year.
Among cities with more than 100,000 people, Chicago was the only one that had no change. Elgin and Joliet saw improvements, and Naperville and Aurora both saw an increase in unemployment.
Illinois' 5.9 percent unemployment rate in December is lagging the national unemployment rate of 4.8 percent. A year ago, the unemployment rate in Illinois was 5.8 percent.
gwong@tribpub.com
