On Air Now

Knox County unemployment drops almost 2 points in a year

Knox County’s unemployment raised by a half percentage point in January, but that’s 1.8 points lower than Knox’s rate in January 2017.

Numbers released Thursday from the Illinois Department of Employment Security show that the entirety of Knox County has an unemployment rate of 5.3 percent, compared with 7.1 January of 2017.

Knox County’s rate is exactly what the state average unemployment is and Galesburg is even better.

Compared to surrounding county Knox’s numbers are competitive, with only Henry and Warren counties having better unemployment of the six counties that touch Knox.

Henry County is at 5.2 percent unemployment with a staggering 2 percentage point improvement over last year.

Warren County continues to hold on to a strong rate with 4.2 percent unemployment, which is the 10th best rate among Illinois counties and over a full percentage point better than the state average.

Galesburg alone fared even better. The city had a streak of four straight months below five percent but still has 5.2 rate, a nearly 2 point improvement over last January.

The city was even with Knox County last year at 7.1 percent but dropped to 5.1 percent unemployment this January.

IDES Director Jeff Mays says that Illinois business added jobs in 11 metro areas with the biggest gains coming in Rockford, Kankakee and Elgin.

Recommended Posts

Loading...

Share Contact

contact-chris-mcintyre-qr-code