Unemployment continued to fall in the Quad Cities in July - from 6.3 per cent a year ago to 5.1 per cent last month.
Tom Austin, from the Illinois Department of Employment Security, says despite the apparent good news, this area lost jobs in manufacturing, due to domestic and international factors.
The Quad Cities also lost jobs in education and health, and government, but payrolls increased in retail, leisure and hospitality, and transportation and warehousing.
Austin says these fluctuations are normal for this time of year.
The last time July unemployment in the Quad Cities was at 5.1 per cent or lower, was in 2008, when it dropped to 4.9 per cent.
And the Department of Employment Security estimates there were 10,000 people in this area considered unemployed in July.
