Dan DeLuca / CC
August 24, 2023 – In Decatur, the not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased 1.4 percentage points to 6.9 percent in July 2023 from 5.5 percent in July 2022. There were an estimated 3,180 unemployed people in the labor force in July 2023.
The number of total nonfarm jobs in the Decatur metro area increased by +400 compared to a year ago.
Employment increased in Construction and Mining (+200), Government (+200) and Educational and Health Services (+200).
Payrolls were unchanged in Retail Trade, Wholesale Trade, Professional and Business Services, Leisure and Hospitality, Financial Activities, Information, Other Services and Transportation, Warehousing, and Utilities.
Statewide, payroll employment decreased in Manufacturing (-200) between July 2022 and July 2023.
Over-the-year, total nonfarm jobs increased in thirteen metropolitan areas and decreased in one for the year ending July 2023, according to data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Illinois Department of Employment Security (DES). Over-the-year, the unemployment rate increased in thirteen metropolitan areas and decreased in one.
The metro areas which had the largest over-the-year percentage increases in total nonfarm jobs were the Danville MSA (+2.6%, +700), the Elgin Metro Division (+2.4%, +6,200), the Champaign-Urbana MSA (+2.1%, +2,400), and the Springfield MSA (+2.1%, +2,300). Total nonfarm jobs in the Chicago-Metro Division were up +1.3% or +50,900. Total nonfarm jobs were down slightly in the Kankakee MSA (-0.5%, -200). Industries that saw job growth in a majority of metro areas included: Leisure and Hospitality (twelve areas); Education and Health Services and Government (eleven areas each).
The metro areas with the largest unemployment rate increases were the Danville MSA (+1.7 points to 6.6%), the Rockford MSA (+1.6 points to 6.8%), the Decatur MSA (+1.4 points to 6.9%), and the Kankakee MSA (+1.4 points to 6.1%). The only metro area with an unemployment rate decrease was the Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights Metropolitan Division (-1.1 percentage points to 4.0%). The Chicago Metro Division unemployment rate tied 2019 for a record low in the month of July.
