The unemployment rate in May fell in every metro area in the state for the second month in a row. The Peoria Metropolitan area’s rate dipped to 7.2-percent in May, a one percent decline from the same time last year.
But that rates is also not fully representative of the actual number of jobs in the region. The Illinois Department of Employment Security says the number of people seeking unemployment dropped. But the number of jobs in the Peoria area also declined by about 33-hundred full time positions.
Losses took place in manufacturing, professional- business services, retail trade, transportation, government, and leisure-hospitality. There were job gains in wholesale trade, construction and educational health-services.