August Jobs: Cities with the Highest and Lowest Unemployment Rates

August marked the 18th straight month of falling unemployment rates in all metro areas, according to preliminary data released by the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

While 32,200 nonfarm jobs have been added over the year, six metro areas lost jobs when compared to August 2014. The department announced last week that the seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment rate dropped 0.2 percentage points to 5.6 percent, though 900 jobs were lost – the third consecutive month of job losses.

“Typically when the unemployment rate goes down, the number of people getting jobs goes up. 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,” said IDES Director Jeff Mays. “With many people dropping out of the labor force, thereby pulling the unemployment rate down, we need to increase job growth in all metro areas.”

These cities, counties and metro areas had the highest and lowest unemployment rates in August.