Rockford area still has state’s highest unemployment rate

By Sean F. Driscoll

BusinessRockford.com

It’s bad news upon bad news for the Rockford area and unemployment.

First, the Rockford metro area — which includes Boone and Winnebago counties — had a 9 percent jobless rate, the highest in the state.

Second, its year-to-year increase was 2.9 percent, the highest jump in the state.

Last but not least, the rate was the highest July unemployment rate in the area’s history since 1990.

The city of Rockford was higher still, recording a 2 percentage-point jump from June. Ten percent of Rockford residents were unemployed in July, according to the data.

The state’s unemployment rate is 7.4 percent, up 2 percentage points from a year ago. The nation’s rate is 6 percent, up 1.1 percentage points from July 2007.

A little good news from the July figures, which are preliminary and not seasonally adjusted, was in nonmanufacturing job growth. The Rockford area had employment gains in several sectors, including education, health services and professional business services, which helped offset losses in the manufacturing sector.

“We’re not seeing strong job growth,” said Tom Austin, a labor market analyst for the Illinois Department of Employment Security. “People are entering the work force and not finding jobs as quickly because there’s not as many jobs being added. As employers see some slowness in the economy nationally, they’ll be hesitant to add employees because they’re not sure what will happen over the next few months or next year. That will be put on hold until they see what takes place nationally.”

Staff writer Sean F. Driscoll can be reached at 815-987-1346 or sdriscoll@rrstar.com.

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