Unemployment rose in the Quad Cities last month to 4.6 per cent, from 3.8 per cent at this time a year ago. The last time the October rate was this high or higher occurred in 2016 when it was 5.2 per cent.
Tom Austin from the Illinois Department of Employment Security says despite the increase, and the loss of jobs in most major categories, the local economy is improving from when the pandemic began.
"The positive sign is that we're still seeing some declines when we look at the unemployment rate. We're seeing more people back and employed, industries have come back with some of them, but we're still seing some of the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on some of our industries."
Unemployment caused by the pandemic peaked in April at 15 per cent, then has fallen steadily to 11 per cent in June, 8 per cent in August, and 7 per cent in September.Last month, only Champaign and Bloomington (both at 4.1 %) had lower unemployment rates than the Quad Cities, with the highest rates in Chicago (7.8 %) and Decatur (6.7 %).
