The unemployment rate has dropped in each of Illinois's 12 metro areas for the fifth time in the past six months.
The Illinois Department of Employment Security reports the percentage of people searching for jobs in the Peoria area is at 6.6% That’s a nearly three-percent drop from the same time last year. It’s also a small drop from October.
The Peoria Metropolitan area lost about 12-hundred jobs even though unemployment declined year-over-year. The biggest losses occurred in the retail trade and leisure-hospitality industries. Statewide unemployment dropped to 6.4 percent in November.