The Illinois economy barely skipped a beat last month, according to new data from the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES). Nonfarm payrolls went down slightly, and the jobless rate stayed the same. As the numbers came in, the IDES recorded a small drop in payrolls of 2,400, but the unemployment rate stayed at 5.3% in September, which was backed up by detailed preliminary data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The numbers show that the job market is pretty stable. The jobless and payroll numbers for October give us a picture of the job market for the week of October 12th.
Breaking it down by sector, the biggest drop in jobs was in trade, transportation, and utilities, which lost 1,900 jobs in October. Not far behind, Other Services lost 1,000 jobs. Information Services, Professional and Business Services, and Other Services all lost 300 jobs. But things weren’t all good. With 1,400, 100, and 100 new jobs, respectively, Leisure and Hospitality, Manufacturing, and Private Education and Health Services all added a small number of workers. Deputy Governor Andy Manart told the Illinois Department of Employment Security, “Illinois continues to prioritize capitalizing on opportunities to enhance investments in the workforce.” This was a nod to the state’s efforts to build a diverse workforce.
In October, the jobless rate in Illinois was 1.2 percentage points higher than the rate across the country, which was 4.1 percent. When you compare the numbers from one year to the next, you can see that Illinois gained +40,500 nonfarm wage jobs. The biggest jumps were in Private Education and Health Services, Government, and Other Services. Professional and Business Services, Financial Activities, and Information, on the other hand, lost a lot of jobs during the same time frame. This wide range of industry outcomes shows how dynamic and ever-changing the state’s job market is.
With 346,400 people out of work, the number of jobless people has gone up by 0.8% from the previous month and by a bold 12.5% year over year. The number of people working has slightly increased over the past month and year, which could mean that more people are looking for work or that people who used to work are looking for work again. “Illinois’ steady payroll job numbers are a testament to the importance of investing in our state’s growing economic ecosystem,” DCEO Director Kristin Richards told IDES, indicating a promise to keep Illinois as an area full of opportunities.
IDES hosts and co-hosts job fairs, works with statewide workforce groups, and runs Illinois JobLink (IJL), the state’s main job search engine, to make it easy for people looking for work to find companies. A recent look at IJL showed that there are over 60,382 resumes and 84,752 job posts just waiting for the right person to find them. These programs show that Illinois is working together to improve the work environment so that it meets the needs of today’s economy.
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