State Stix

Labor Day 1995

Illinois' job picture this Labor Day is reasonably bright. The unemployment rate in July stood at 5.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, down from 5.7 percent a year ago, according to figures released by the state Department of Employment Security, the source of the graphics on this page.

The rate in Illinois continues to trail the U.S. jobless rate, as well as the rates of unemployment in other major, populous industrial states.

Jobless rates also improved in all major metropolitan areas of the state between June 1994 and June of this year. However, unemployment persists at sometimes staggering levels in parts of Illinois, predominantly the rural agricultural and mining regions of southern Illinois.

The Department of Employment Security reports that 1994 set a record for level of employment — 5,463,100. Manufacturing industries added 19,400 jobs in 1994, sustaining a rebound from recession cutbacks that began in 1992. Nonmanufacturing industries added more than 100,000 jobs in 1994, according to the agency, led by gains in construction, wholesale and retail trade and services. Only the mining industry posted declining employment in 1994, the loss of 600 jobs continuing a trend that has seen the number of mining jobs in Illinois cut in half — to 14,900 — in the past 15 years.

Donald Sevener

Figure 3. Counties with highest, lowest unemployment rates, June 1995
10 highest		10 lowest
Pulaski	12.2%	Woodford	2.3%
Franklin	10.9%	Brown	2.7%
Alexander	10.0%	McDonough	2.8%
Saline	9.9%	DuPage	2.9%
Perry	9.5%	Champaign	2.9%
Gallatin	8.5%	McLean	2.9%
Hamilton	8.0%	McHenry	3.1%
Lawrence	7.6%	DeKalb	3.1%
White	7.2%	Lake	3.1%
Williamson	7.1%	Monroe	3.3%

34/September 1995/Illinois Issues