CHICAGO – The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) announced today that the unemployment rate remained at 4.2 percent in November and nonfarm payrolls increased by +5,900 jobs over-the-month, based on preliminary data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and released by IDES. The October jobs gain was revised downward from the preliminary report (from +10,300 jobs to +6,800 jobs).
Job growth was moderate during the September to November period posting an average monthly change of +4,800 jobs, an improvement over the prior month when the three-month average change was +1,800 jobs.
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“Nonfarm payrolls were up over-the-month led by gains in professional and business services and educational and health services jobs “said IDES Director Jeff Mays. “The unemployment rate was unchanged in November, but lower than it was a year ago.”
“We are continuing to see the positive impact of the effort to grow jobs in Illinois,” said Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Acting Director Leslie Munger. “Pro-growth initiatives and more effective marketing of Illinois' assets are resulting in a lower unemployment rate and a growing Manufacturing base.”
In November, the three industry sectors with the largest over-the-month gains in employment were: Professional and Business Services (+4,100), Educational and Health Services (+2,700) and Trade, Transportation and Utilities (+1,000). The industry sectors with payroll declines were: Information (-1,600), Construction (-800) and Manufacturing (-800).
Over-the-year, nonfarm payroll employment increased by +54,600 jobs with the largest gains in these industry sectors in November: Government (+14,800); Manufacturing (+10,300); and Education and Health Services (+8,300). The industry sectors with over-the-year declines were: Information (-3,300) and Other Services (-600). Illinois nonfarm payrolls were up +0.9 percent over-the-year in sharp contrast to the nation’s +1.7 percent over-the-year gain in November.
The state’s unemployment rate is +0.5 percentage points higher than the national unemployment rate reported for November 2018, which held at 3.7 percent. The Illinois unemployment rate is down -0.7 percentage points from a year ago when it was 4.9 percent.
The number of unemployed workers increased +1.4 percent from the prior month to 273,800, down -14.0 percent over the same month for the prior year. The labor force increased +0.2 percent over-the-month but was about unchanged over-the-year. The unemployment rate identifies those individuals who are out of work and are seeking employment.
An individual who exhausts or is ineligible for benefits is still reflected in the unemployment rate if they actively seek work. To help connect jobseekers to employers who are hiring, IDES’ maintains the state’s largest job search engine, IllinoisJoblink.com (IJL), which recently showed 41,669 posted resumes with 94,286 jobs available.
1976-2017 seasonally adjusted labor force data for Illinois, and all other states, have been revised as required by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The monthly historical revisions to state labor force estimates reflect new national benchmark controls, state working-age population controls, seasonal factors, as well as updated total nonfarm jobs and unemployment benefits claims inputs. Illinois labor force data were also smoothed to eliminate large monthly changes as a result of volatility in the monthly Census Population Survey (CPS) and national benchmarking. In February 2018, the BLS also introduced a new seasonal adjustment procedure for state labor force estimates which resulted in the entire monthly historical series for Illinois and all other states being replaced. For all of these reasons, the comments and tables citing unemployment rates in previous state news releases/materials may no longer be valid.
- Monthly seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for Illinois and the Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights Metropolitan Division are available here: Illinois & Chicago Metropolitan Area Unemployment Rates
- Monthly 2013-2017 seasonally adjusted nonfarm payroll employment data for Illinois have been revised. To control for potential survey error, the estimates are benchmarked annually to universal counts derived primarily from unemployment insurance tax reports. Effective with January 2018 estimates, the BLS introduced concurrent seasonal adjustment for monthly state nonfarm payroll employment estimates
- Not seasonally adjusted jobs data with industry detail are available at Not Seasonally Adjusted Jobs. “Other Services” include activities in three broad categories: Personal and laundry; repair and maintenance; and religious, grant making, civic and professional organizations. Seasonally adjusted employment data for subsectors within industries are not available
About IDES : IDES encourages employment by connecting employers to jobseekers, provides unemployment insurance benefits to eligible individuals, produces labor market data and protects taxpayers from unemployment insurance fraud. Visit the Department’s website at www.ides.illinois.gov for more information. You can also follow IDES on Twitter and Facebook.
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