Unemployment held steady in the Quad Cities in November, at 5.8 per cent, the same rate as a year ago.
Tom Austin, from the Illinois Department of Employment Security, says that's mainly due to no change in the number of people looking for jobs, not great strength in the local economy.
In fact, the Quad Cities lost 3,200 jobs during the past year.
There were some job gains in retail and transportation and warehousing, but nowhere near enough to offset the other losses.
The November rate of 5.8 per cent was also a slight increase from October when local unemployment was 5.6 per cent.
State officials say the most troubling part of the November report was the low rate of employment growth in Illinois - of the 102 counties, 96 remain below the peak employment levels recorded in the pre-recession year of 2007.
