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Economy

QC Unemployment Down in June

As the summer began, unemployment fell in the Quad Cities. The Illinois Department of Employment Security reports the jobless rate fell from 4.2 per cent in June of last year, to 3.8 per cent last month - nearly half a percentage point.

Spokesman Tom Austin credits new hiring in construction, manufacturing, leisure and hospitality, and for the category of professional and business services.

"A lot of companies uses these employment services companies as their h.r., and so they'll often hire them through these employment services companies first before they bring them on. Or some companies use it as the ability to control employment costs and then use the temp agencies as needed, and increase their staff or decrease it as needed."

At the same time, the Quad Cities lost jobs in June in retail and government.

Unemployment fell in all fourteen major metro areas in Illinois last month, resulting in an unemployment rate of 4 per cent, down from 4.7 the year before. The rate in Iowa remained at 2.4 per cent, holding steady for the past year. 

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.