State Stix

General funds

In March the general funds end-of-month balance was $99.486 million. The average daily available balance was $70.142 million. This balance was possible only because the state was holding $727 million in unpaid bills as of March 31.

Source: Office of the Comptroller.

Illinois unemployment drops

In March the national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 7.3 percent, unchanged from February. Illinois' was 7.8 percent, down from 8.5 percent. Among the most populous states, Illinois ranked sixth in unemployment behind Michigan's 9.3 percent, Massachusetts' 9.1 percent, Florida's 8.6 percent, California's 8.5 percent and New York's 8.0 percent.

There were 6.090 million people in the state's labor force in March (down 4,000 from Februry); 5.613 million people had jobs (up 40,000), and 477,000 were unemployed (down 44,000). Employment rose in all sectors. The leaders were: services, up 16,000; government, up 8,000; trades, up 7,000; construction, up 6,500.

Source: Department of Employment Security.

Metro area unemployment

February unemployment rates (not seasonally adjusted) declined in all of the state's major metropolitan areas except Rockford, where there were temporary layoffs for inventory.

Aurora-Elgin (Kane and Kendall counties), 9.7 percent, down 0.1 percent from January.

Bloomington-Normal (McLean County), 5.8 percent, down 0.1 percent.

Champaign-Urbana-Rantoul (Champaign County), 5.3 percent, down 0.6 percent.

Chicago (Cook, DuPage and McHenry counties), 8.4 percent, down 0.1 percent.

Davenport-Rock Island-Moline, Illinois portion (Henry and Rock Island counties), 9.3 percent, down 0.9 percent.

Decatur (Macon County), 10.8 percent, down 0.3 percent.

Joliet (Grundy and Will counties), 10.5 percent, down 0.3 percent.

Kankakee (Kankakee County), 10.8 percent, down 0.3 percent.

Lake County, 6.2 percent, down 0.1 percent.

Peoria (Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford counties), 8.9 percent, down 0.3 percent.

Rockford (Boone and Winnebago counties), 12.4 percent, up 2.1 percent.

Springfield (Menard and Sangamon counties), 6.5 percent, down 0.3 percent.

St. Louis, Illinois portion (Clinton, Jersey, Madison, Monroe and St. Clair counties), 9.5 percent, down 0.9 percent.

Source: Same as above.

Margaret S. Knoepfle

May 1992/Illinois Issues/35