The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) announced this week Illinois’ unemployment rate in June declined to 5.9 percent and nonfarm payroll employment shed -7,500 jobs, based on preliminary data released by the Department and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). According to a news release, the state’s unemployment rate is higher than the national unemployment rate reported for June, which fell from the prior month to 5.3 percent.
According to the Department, Illinois’ labor force has decreased by 33,600 people and the number of Illinois residents employed from that time has declined by 17,600, since January 2015. IDES analysts estimate that the number of jobs in Illinois will not reach pre-recession levels until approximately September 2016.
In June, the unemployment rate stood 1.0 percentage points below the unemployment rate a year ago when it was 6.9 percent. The number of unemployed workers decreased 2.5 percent from the prior month to 382,400 and was down -14.5 percent over the same month for the prior year.