Unemployment throughout the nation has been on the rise. In February 8.1 percent of America’s population was without work. Although several states’ unemployment rates for last month have yet to be released, data from January shows that finding a job in that finding a job in Illinois is becoming more difficult.
In January Illinois’ unemployment rate rose from 7.2 percent to 7.9 percent. According to the State Department of Employment Security, part of this increase can be blamed on the fact that 10,800 Illinois jobs in manufacturing. With Caterpillar Inc. having to severely reduce the number of employees, many experts expected the number of individuals claiming jobless benefits would rise significantly. During the same month, the national average was 7.6 percent, which means that finding work was somewhat more difficult in Illinois than in many other parts of the country.
With Caterpillar currently doing away with somewhere around 22,000 more jobs throughout their global operations, Illinois will likely lose a significant number of positions. This is due to the fact that the company has its headquarters in Peoria.
Over the last 12-months, Illinois has lost a total of 175,100 jobs. This has caused the state’s nonfarm employment to fall to 5,820,200. Manufacturing employment in Illinois fell by 38,800, which is approximately a 5.8 percent decline. The state’s construction industry has also been suffering, most likely due to the fact that housing market crisis has caused the necessity of new building projects to dwindle. The sector’s total job losses for the year ended up around 30,600 positions. Since this industry already employed a smaller number of people, the decline was much more significant. Around 11 percent of those employed in this industry lost their jobs. Other sectors that saw some problems included the financial industry, leisure and hospitality and the professional and business services sector.
Despite all of this, residents in Illinois have gained a little faith in the job market. According to Spherion, the state’s Employee Confidence Index rose 2.6 percent to 40.6 percent during January. Around 83 percent of those who are employed in the state feel that they are unlikely to lose their current position. This is a 10 percent increase from December.
“Illinois is keeping pace with the nation as far as the unemployment rate and national job picture is concerned, but surprisingly our national report indicated an increase of overall employee confidence,” said Jodie Wood, regional director of Spherion Staffing Services in the state. “There is really no clear cut reason why the state’s employee confidence has increased month over month, except for the fact that there is a renewed sense of optimism stemming from the new administration and economic stimulus package which we are hoping will create the jobs needed to jump start our market.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, things could be much worse in Illinois. Several states ended up having unemployment rates over ten percent in January. Michigan, where unemployment reached 11.6 percent, had the highest jobless rate in the country. The issues facing the auto industry have seriously affected the state. South Carolina followed with an unemployment rate of 10.4 percent. Rhode Island came in third with 10.3 percent of the population unable to find work. California rounded out the four worst states in the nation with an unemployment rate of 10.1 percent.
Tags: Illinois Jobs
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