Most metro areas in Illinois saw rising unemployment rates coupled with rising numbers of jobs and employed individuals.Knox followed that lead, with a 5.2 percent unemployment rate, even with the previous month according to preliminary numbers from the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
Knox County grew its labor force slightly more than the state average, but that was just 0.6 percent compared to the state’s 0.4 percent.
Through 2018 so far over 500 more people became employed in Knox, a 2.5. percent jump.
Across the state the industries with the biggest growth jobs in the last year have been in government, followed by an industry that Galesburg is seeing increasing investment in, manufacturing.
IDES says there are over 10,000 more manufacturing jobs in Illinois than there were last November, a 1.8 percent increase.
The only major industry the state saw a loss of jobs in was information.
Knox County is well within range to finish the year with the strongest annual average employment rate since 2000, two years before the Galesburg Maytag Plant shuttered its doors.
