State officials say the March unemployment rate dropped in every Illinois metropolitan area for a record seventh consecutive month.
A report released Thursday by the Illinois Department of Employment Security shows that the Rockford metropolitan area with the state's highest unemployment rate, at 13.3 percent. That's almost 4 percentage points lower than the same time last year.
The Kankakee-Bradley metropolitan area March rate was second-highest, at 12.7 percent.
Other metro areas with jobless rates over 10 percent were:
- Decatur, 10.7 percent
- Danville, 10.6 percent
- Lake County, Ill.-Kenosha, Wis., area at 10.3 percent
Areas with rates below 10 percent were:
- the St. Louis area, 9.6 percent
- Peoria, 9.1 percent
- Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, 8.7 percent
- Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, 8.1 percent
- Champaign-Urbana, 7.8 percent
- Springfield, 7.6 percent
- Bloomington-Normal, 6.9 percent