New figures from the Illinois Department of Employment Security show the jobless rate here rose from 3.4 per cent a year ago, to 3.9 per cent in May - a gain of nearly half a percentage point.
At the same time, the Quad Cities area gained a total of 2,800 jobs - with the biggest increases during the past year in leisure and hospitality, education and health services, and manufacturing.
Just a few jobs were lost in professional and business services, and retail trade.
A rising unemployment rate can be a sign of optimism. It identifies people who are out of work AND looking for jobs. So if the overall economy is adding jobs, more people may decide to look for work, raising the unemployment rate.