The Illinois unemployment rate is down to 8.8 percent. That’s the rate for September, down from 9.1 percent in August.
This is progress, says Greg Rivara of the Illinois Department of Employment Security. “Having the unemployment rate fall to 8.8 percent, falling actually for 10 out of the last 13 months, gives us consistency in the trend. It gives us confidence in knowing that the economy is improving – not improving at the rate that anyone embraces, that anyone enjoys, but certainly doing better. A year ago, the unemployment rate was at 10.1 percent,” he said.
The state gained 13,800 jobs over the month. The number of unemployed is 582,000, which is down 11,000 from August.
