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Despite the fact that unemployment rose throughout Illinois, employers continued to add jobs in Peoria during the month of September. The most recent statistics from the Illinois Department of Employment Security show that the city added more jobs last month than any other metropolitan area.

Although the manufacturing sector is suffering throughout many parts of the country, jobs gains in Peoria were mainly attributed this this industry. Overall, the city has added 2,00 new positions since September of last year. This is 1.1 percent increase in employment. Other sectors that significantly increased the number of jobs provided in the area included professional and business services, leisure and hospitality and government.

The increase in Peoria jobs did not, however, stave off rising unemployment. According to the state’s DES, joblessness in the city is up in comparison to September of last year. Despite this, unemployment is slightly lower than it was in August in the area.

“The start of the school year was the major reason for the over-the-month improvement,” said economist Norman Kelewitz, who compiles and translates data for the department. “There are some good things, such as the increase in the number of manufacturing jobs in the Peoria area since last year. But there are also a number of not-so-good things that caused overall unemployment rates to go up.”

Kelewitz said that some of these less-than-positive elements included certain job sectors not doing as well as expected and the fact that the economy, as a whole, is suffering.

Illinois unemployment rate for September was 6.9 percent, which is 0.8 percent higher than the national jobless percentage.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 26th, 2008 at 1:25 am and is filed under job search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.