The unemployment rate in Bloomington Normal rose a half point last month.
The State Department of Employment Security says the five-point-one-percent jobless rate for the twin cities is the fourth lowest of the major cities in the state behind Champaign-Urbana, Lake County, and Springfield.
The department says seven metro areas in the state had rising unemployment in September compared to a year ago. Director Jeff Mays says Illinois is experiencing not nearly enough job growth as the state loses ground compared to other parts of the country. Illinois added jobs in eight metro areas. But, the Bloomington Normal labor market is 23-hundred jobs smaller than a year ago. And the Peoria area job force shrank by the same amount.
Peoria unemployment in September was at six point four percent.
IDES reports modest job gains in leisure and hospitality, financial activities, and education and health services in the twin cities last month compared to a year ago. But, the declines were far larger in other sectors such as manufacturing, government, construction, retail trade, information, and business services.
State figures show an estimate of five-thousand-people out of work and looking for a job in the Bloomington-Normal area and more than eleven-thousand-people seeking work in the Peoria region.