WREX.com – Rockford’s News LeaderRockford unemployment rate down 3% from last year

Rockford unemployment rate down 3% from last year

The unemployment rate for the Rockford metro area fell by 3.3 percent from last July, but are up slightly from a month ago.

Numbers from the Illinois Department of Employment Security show the metro area's rate, which covers Winnebago and Boone counties, is 12.1 percent in July. That's up 0.5 percent from where it was in June.

"Long-term trends show that Illinois is in a better place today than it was one year ago," said IDES Director Jay Rowell. "To ensure that the steady progress continues, workers should use our services to update their jobs skills and employers should use the department to evaluate potential tax credits, especially for newly hired employees."

Compared to last year, there are 2,900 more jobs in the Rockford metro area.

You can see a county-by-county breakdown of unemployment rates by clicking the following link: http://lmi.ides.state.il.us/PDFs/countymap.pdf