Unemployment in the Quad Cities dropped in August, from 7.5 per cent a year ago to 5.1 per cent last month.
Tom Austin from the Illinois Department of Employment Security says there were 5,400 more jobs compared to a year ago, with increases in government, manufacturing, construction, education and health services, and leisure and hospitality.
"We're still looking back a year ago where we were in the midst of the pandemic and the reaction to that of businesses and government leaders to stem the tide of the growth of the pandemic. So the increases in some of these sectors do reflect that change that we saw last year compared to this year where we're a little more open that we were a year ago."
But the Quad Cities lost a total of just 200 jobs during the past year in the information and financial activities sectors.
State figures show the unemployment rate fell in all 14 metro areas of Illinois in August, and rates fell for the fifth month in a row in all 102 counties.
