"The January unemployment rate fell in every county in Illinois for the second consecutive month," read Thursday's accompanying news release. How can that be? That was looking at last month's unemployment rate versus January a year ago. Indeed, things aren't as bad as they were then. That's not to say they're very good now, though.
McHenry County unemployment jumped from a revised 8.3 percent rate in December to 10.6 percent in January. Algonquin's rate rose 7.9 percent. Lake in the Hills' rose to 8.2 percent. Crystal Lake's increased to 8.9 and McHenry clocked in at 10.0 even.
More troubling, the month-to-month rate increase came from from both a shrinkage in the total number of available workers and a sizable jump in the number of people looking for work.
IDES spokesman Greg Rivara said it wasn't a good idea to put too much emphasis on January's numbers. "It's not unusual at all historically to see increases from December to January," he said. That's when jobs for the holidays go away.
Rivara said that kind of variation makes looking at month-to-month changes in unemployment sort of a mug's game. Seasonally adjusted unemployment numbers compensate for predictable variation, he said. The trouble is there aren't any seasonally adjusted numbers available for unemployment focused down to the county level, according to Rivara.
Other sources say the December to January change in the unemployment rate is also often distorted by statistical "adjustments" made at the end of the year. Annual rejiggering is why the January unemployment report came about a week later than usual this time.
UNEMPLOYMENT (unadjusted)
REVISED Dec 2010 PRELIMINARY Jan 2011
LABOR UNEMPLOYED LABOR UNEMPLOYED JAN
FORCE NUMBER RATE FORCE NUMBER RATE 2010
U.S. (X1000) 153,156 13,997 9.1 152,536 14,937 9.6 10.6
ILLINOIS 6,643,776 586,025 8.8 6,567,400 633,004 9.6 12.1
MCHENRY COUNTY 180,631 15,067 8.3 179,608 16,808 9.4 11.6
KANE COUNTY 270,624 24,160 8.9 269,156 26,808 10.0 12.4
LAKE COUNTY 366,927 34,871 9.5 357,500 37,463 10.5 13.0
DUPAGE COUNTY 522,230 35,144 6.7 516,975 38,023 7.4 9.4
ALGONQUIN 16,665 1,199 7.2 16,504 1,296 7.9 9.9
LITH 16,907 1,203 7.1 16,830 1,388 8.2 10.5
CRYSTAL LAKE 22,441 1,808 8.1 22,281 1,993 8.9 10.7
MCHENRY 15,279 1,337 8.8 15,241 1,531 10.0 11.9
2 comments:
Should the unemployment rise be of a shock to Illinois residents. I think not. There is a small two man business in Algonquin where the owner would really want to add another person. His accountant informed him of the new Quinn tax rates and other restrictions that have not been publicized in the media. He just can not afford it. There are hundreds of businesses like this but the pols, especially the democrats don't really care!
Love to do a story about that business--ed.
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