The June unemployment rate for the Peoria metropolitan area climbed almost a full percent over the previous month, but still fell significantly from a year ago.
The Peoria area's jobless rate was 6.4% last month, marking a 7.2% drop from June 2020 as the second-best improvement among Illinois' 14 metro areas. Only the Elgin metro division (down 7.6% to 6.2%) registered a larger over-the-year decline in the preliminary figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
The City of Peoria alone saw an 8.1% drop in unemployment compared to a year ago, down to 8.9%. Peoria County’s rate fell by more than half – from 15.7% to 7.8% – while Tazewell County’s figure landed at 5.4% after coming in at 12.3% last June.
The Peoria metro area’s May unemployment figure of 5.5% represented a 9.9% reduction from the same month in 2020 as the region and the state endured the COVID-19 shutdown.
The Peoria area has added 10,200 new jobs compared to last June, including 5,000 in the leisure and hospitality sector and 2,600 in education and health services.
Statewide unemployment for June landed at 7.9%, down from 14.4% a year ago. Illinois added 312,700 nonfarm jobs, with gains in every metro area.
