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April 17, 2009
The Illinois Department of Employment Security said Thursday that the state unemployment rate climbed to 9.1 percent in March, its highest level since November 1985.
The rate jumped a half-percent from an 8.6 percent mark in February.
The report said 596,000 workers were unemployed in Illinois, the highest level for the state since September 1983.
The rise in March keeps Illinois ahead of the national unemployment rate, which reached 8.5 percent, the Labor Department said.
“As the recession continues, so do our efforts to improve customer service and to inform people about programs that assess an individual’s work skills so they can better prepare themselves when the economy turns around,” IDES Director Maureen O’Donnell said in a statement.
Illinois lost 14,200 manufacturing jobs in March, its third-largest month-over-month loss since January 1992. The sector has lost almost 61,000 jobs in the past year, more than 9 percent of its work force.
The Professional and Business Services sector reported a loss of 13,200 workers in March, the second-largest decrease on record. It was the third time in five months that the sector has lost at least 10,000 workers.
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