State Stix

THE general funds balance at the end of March was $265,097 million, an increase of $152,819 million over February's end-of-month balance. The average daily available balance in March was $236,468 million, $27,683 million higher than it was in February.

The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in March was 7.2 percent, down by .1 percent from February but still considerably above the January rate of 6.7 percent. Illinois' seasonally adjusted unemployment rate also dropped in March to 8.9 percent from 9.5 percent in February. In January the rate had been 7.7 percent.

The state's civilian work force consisted of 5.667 million people in March; of these, 5.165 million people had jobs, and 502,000 were looking for work. There were 27,000 less people in the work force in March than in February, but in March 14,000 more people had jobs. The number of people looking for work dropped in March by 41,000.

According to the Department of Employment Security (DES), the increase in the number of people working in March could be attributed to warm weather, which helped the construction and the amusement and recreation industries; more retail sales because of the Easter holiday; an increase in real estate activity because of lower interest rates; and several major manufacturers calling back their workers including Deere in East Moline (1,500 workers) and Ford in Chicago (2,000 workers).

Final unemployment rates in the state's major metro areas in December and January were: Aurora-Elgin, 7.3 percent, 7.8 percent; Bloomington-Normal, 6.1 percent, 6.4 percent; Champaign-Urbana-Rantoul, 5.2 percent, 5.4 percent; Chicago, 7.5 percent, 7.6 percent; Davenport-Rock Island-Moline (Illinois sector), 11.4 percent, 13.5 percent; Decatur, 10.5 percent, 10.8 percent; Joliet, 7.8 percent, 8.0 percent; Kankakee, 10.7 percent, 11.9 percent; Lake County, 5.6 percent, 5.8 percent; Peoria, 9.8 percent, 10.1 percent; Rockford, 9.0 percent, 9.5 percent; Springfield, 6.8 percent, 6.8 percent; St. Louis (Illinois sector), 9.3 percent, 9.8 percent.

From the figures it appears that the January final metro area unemployment rates went up compared to December, while the statewide unemployment rate went down. According to DES this is because in February the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics readjusted all the unemployment figures for 1984 and 1985.