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Economy

Unemployment Up and Employment Down

A double dose of bad news for the Quad Cities - in September unemployment rose and employment fell. 

Tom Austin from the Illinois Department of Employment Security says our unemployment rate rose from 5.1 per cent a year ago to 5.9 per cent last month. 

"This follows a trend we've been seeing dominated by the manufacturing sector in the Quad City area - as those industries have made cutbacks due to national and international declines in their businesses."

 
 
And as manufacturing declines, it drags down other areas.

"Especially when we look at retail trade and leisure and hospitality where that deals with disposable income. And if that's cut back or they're concerned, they're going to cut back spending in those areas and that does sometimes result in declines in employment in those industries."

 
Figures from the state show the total number of people employed in the Quad Cities in September declined by 43-hundred.

In the rest of Illinois, unemployment rates changed very little, up or down, again depending on the importance of manufacturing in each metro area. 

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.