Tom Austin from the Illinois Department of Employment Security says this area gained 7,400 jobs during the past year.
"Especially in the industries of leisure and hospitality, manufacturing, professional and business services - which includes your employment and temporary service agencies, along with retail trade."
The only declines were in the category of education and health services.
But the May rate of 3.8 per cent was actually a slight increase over April when unemployment here was 3.7 per cent. Austin says that's due to a normal, seasonal pattern - students getting out of school and college for the summer.
"If we look at over-the-month data we do see increases in both the number of people unemployed, which we have new entrants in, as well as employed, so people are finding work."
The highest unemployment rates in this area were in Knox County, at 6.1 per cent, and the city of Galesburg at 6.9 per cent. The lowest May unemployment rate was in Henderson County, at 3.8 per cent.
