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Economy

QC Unemployment Falls in December

Unemployment dropped sharply in the Quad Cities in December. 

Tom Austin, from the Illinois Department of Employment Security, says it fell from 6.9 per cent a year ago, to 6 per cent last month.

Despite the big decline, the Quad Cities ranked only in the middle of the 12 major metropolitan areas in IIllinois - unemployment rates were lower in December in Bloomington, Champaign, Chicago, Saint Louis, and Springfield. 

And this was the 9th month in a row that the rates dropped in all 12.
In this area, unemployment ranged from 5.9 per cent in Scott County, to 6 per cent in Rock Island and Henry counties, and 7.2 per cent in Mercer County. Rates in Bureau and Fulton were even higher - at 7.4 per cent. 

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.