Economy

You could call it the calm before the storm. Unemployment in the Quad Cities went down in March, just ahead of the huge numbers of applications that have since been filed due to the pandemic.

Hoping to protect its businesses and their jobs, the Village of Milan has set up a Business Assistance Loan Program. Because of the pandemic, it's offering forgivable loans and zero interest loans of up to 2,500 dollars.

Another John Deere factory has been affected by the coronavirus. This time it's the Harvester Works in East Moline.

As the coronavirus spread across the US in March, airline travel began to fall off sharply. And at the Quad City Airport, passenger traffic dropped 46 per cent compared to the same month a year ago.

The Quad City International Airport will receive some welcome help from Washington during the pandemic. The federal stimulus bill includes 8.1 million dollars for operating and maintenance expenses.

Hoping to save as many local businesses as possible during the pandemic, chambers of commerce across Illinois are encouraging people to shop where they live. And to help, the Association of Chambers of Commerce has started a week long campaign and set up a website illinois love local dot com.

Thanks to COVID-19, Community Action of Eastern Iowa is delivering a lot more food than it used to. 

Unemployment fell in the Quad Cities in February. It dropped from 4.8 per cent a year ago to 4 per cent in February.