Unemployment continued to fall in the Quad Cities in August, falling from 5.3 per cent last year to 4.5 per cent last month.
Tom Austin from the Illinois Department of Employment Security says overall, the Quad Cities added about 400 jobs in August - in construction, professional and business services, and in education and health.
"Education and health services is mostly made up of hospitals and clinics, with a component of education in there. Most of your education employment would fall under government when we look at our local schools, and that also saw an increase when we looked over the year. "
But this area also lost jobs in two major categories - manufacturing and retail.
The August unemployment rate of 4.5 per cent translates into about 84-hundred people officially considered unemployed - that is out of work AND looking for jobs.
That number hit 12,000 in January then dropped steadily through April to 7,700. It began to rise during May and June to 8,600, then dropped and held steady at 8,400 in July and August.
