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Unemployment rates released for area counties

The Illinois Department of Employment Security released numbers for the month of August Thursday. 

In Galesburg’s unemployment rate sat at 5.4% down from 6.1% a year ago.

Galesburg labor force shrank by 126 workers, with 30 fewer jobs compared to August 2016.

The lowest unemployment rate in the state goes to Brown and Washington County – 2.9%.

The highest unemployment rate in the state goes to the state’s southern-most county Alexander, which sits at 9.4%.

For Knox County the unemployment rate dropped to 5% down from 5.8% in August of 2016.

Knox County has 54 fewer jobs compared to August last year, and 235 people left the workforce.

Warren County’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.3% in August – one of the lowest in the surrounding area, down from 5.2% a year ago – with 296 people that left the workforce, while 201 jobs left the county.

Mercer County also has one of the lowest unemployment rates in August with 4.5% down from 5.3 a year ago.

The biggest unemployment rate drop in the area goes to McDonough County – currently 5.3% down 1.9 percentage points from 6.9% last year.

Henry County has the smallest rate drop – 4.9% down point 6 percentage points from 5.5% in August 2016.

Henderson County saw one of the biggest rate drops from 6.3% in August 2016 to 5% in August 2017 a decrease of 1.3 percentage points.

For Illinois Metro areas, Bloomington has one of the biggest unemployment rate drops 4.2% – down 1.1 percentage points from 5.3% last year.

Peoria dropped one full percentage point from 6.3% a year ago to 5.3% for August 2017.

The Quad City region of Davenport, Moline, Rock Island dropped point 8 percentage points from 5.3% to 4.5%.

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