CHICAGO–The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) announced today that nonfarm payrolls increased +11,400 jobs over-the-month and the unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in June, down -0.1 percentage point from the prior month, based on preliminary data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and released by IDES. The May jobs decline was revised from the preliminary report (from -2,400 to +2,300 jobs).
Illinois payroll employment has shown variability since the beginning of the year, as have National payrolls. Average payroll employment growth in Illinois during the April to June three-month period, which provides a more stable measure of payroll employment change, was +10,700 jobs, with the largest gains in Leisure and Hospitality (+3,800), Professional and Business Services (+3,000) and Government (+1,500).
“Job growth remains strong in Illinois, and this administration looks forward to continuing to build on that growth with policies aimed at lifting up working families, “said Deputy Governor Dan Hynes. “With a balanced budget, a bipartisan capital plan investing in horizontal and vertical infrastructure, and legislation to raise wages and support small businesses, we are confident we are laying the groundwork for long term economic growth across Illinois.”
“The continued job growth Illinois is experiencing is a testament to Governor Pritzker’s commitment to spurring economic development across the state. The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity is creating and executing on strategies that will enable the state to maintain that growth by creating a strong workforce and strong business community.” said Erin Guthrie, Acting Director of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. “
Over-the-year, nonfarm payroll employment increased by +79,200 jobs with the largest gains in these industry sectors in June: Professional and Business Services (+19,400), Leisure and Hospitality (+18,100) and Educational and Health Services (+15,200). The industry sectors with over-the-year declines were: Information (-2,900), Construction (-300) and Mining (-200). Illinois nonfarm payrolls were up +1.3 percent over-the-year as compared to the nation’s +1.5 percent over-the-year gain in June.
The state’s unemployment rate is +0.6 percentage points higher than the national unemployment rate reported for June 2019, which rose to 3.7 percent. The Illinois unemployment rate was unchanged from a year ago when it was 4.3 percent.
The number of unemployed workers decreased from the prior month, -2.7 percent to 277,400, and was up +0.5 percent over the same month for the prior year. The labor force was up +0.1 percentage point over-the-month and +0.4 percentage point over-the-year. The unemployment rate identifies those individuals who are out of work and are seeking employment.
An individual who exhausts or is ineligible for benefits is still reflected in the unemployment rate if they actively seek work. To help connect jobseekers to employers who are hiring, IDES’ maintains the state’s largest job search engine, IllinoisJoblink.com (IJL), which recently showed 59,345 posted resumes with 93,110 jobs available.
