Knox County’s unemployment rate dropped slightly in July, a month after a nearly one point jump halted a stretch of unemployment near 4 percent.
Knox’s not seasonally adjusted unemployment was at 4.7 percent and Galesburg’s was at 5.2 percent.
The State of Illinois’ current not seasonally adjusted rate is 4.3 percent, lower than Knox County, but locally the last few months patterns of falling and climbing have followed trends in the state’s rate.
For most of 2018, Knox had seen steady improvements in the unemployment rate and mostly stable labor force with some modest losses.
Once again Knox County lost members of their labor force, 347, the biggest month to month loss in 2018.
Warren County’s rate also dropped slightly, now at 4.3 percent but Henry County was even slower at 4.2 percent.
Also it should be noted that Warren County and Henry County saw hardly any change to their labor force from June to July.
Fulton County has one of the highest unemployment rates of any county in the state at 5.8 percent.
Fulton saw 0.2 point improvement over the month with practically no decrease in labor force.
