CRYSTAL LAKE – Unemployment in McHenry County and Illinois declined in August for the 18th consecutive month, but state officials warned Thursday about slowing job growth.
The countywide unemployment rate dropped 1.1 percentage points in August to 4.8 percent from the same time a year ago, according to preliminary figures released Thursday by the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
The statewide unemployment rate declined 1.3 percentage points to 5.6 percent in August. But only eight of 14 metro areas in Illinois reported job gains, with the largest gains happening downstate in areas like Carbondale-Marion, Danville (both 1.7 percent) and Champaign-Urbana (1.3 percent).
Some western metro areas saw the largest job losses, including the Quad Cities (2.3 percent) and Peoria (1.4 percent). IDES Director Jeff Mays said numerous residents are leaving the labor force – an effect pulling down unemployment rates in Illinois.
"Typically, when the unemployment rate goes down, the number of people getting jobs goes up," Mays said in a statement. "But since that is not the case in many of Illinois' metro areas, focusing only on the decline in unemployment rates does not tell the whole story."
In the Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights metro area, which includes McHenry County, roughly 35,900 jobs were added in August, a 1 percent increase from the same time a year ago.
Among major cities and villages in the county, Woodstock saw the largest drop in unemployment in August from the same time a year ago, according to IDES figures. Unemployment in Woodstock decreased 1.3 percentage points to 4.9 percent.