Illinois unemployment rate jumps to 7.6%

Leisure and hospitality lead job losses as U.S. rate remains steady at 6.7%

The Palmer House in Chicago remains closed in the pandemic and may not reopen, as it’s also under foreclosure. (Wikimedia Commons/Tom Cap)

By Ted Cox

The state’s unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent in December, according to data released Friday by the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

Although unemployment across the country has slowly diminished since spiking in April in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, December saw an increase of 0.7 percentage point in the Illinois rate from 6.9 percent in November. The national unemployment rate held steady at 6.7 percent in December, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

IDES reported: “In December, the three industry sectors with the largest over-the-month gains in employment were professional and business services (+13,000), trade, transportation, and utilities (+10,100), and construction (+8,300).” But those gains combined did not make up for the loss of another 41,000 jobs in leisure and hospitality, and information services lost more than 1,000 positions as well.

The Pritzker administration laid blame, of course, on the pandemic. “The administration remains focused on continuing to support claimants and their families through the pandemic’s ongoing impact on our economy,” said Deputy Gov. Dan Hynes in a statement. “This includes standing up new unemployment programs enacted through federal legislation, ensuring claimants get the help they need to process their claims, and rebuilding our economy in the weeks and months ahead to ensure working families get the opportunities they deserve.” 

“While Illinois is making important progress with administering vaccines which will protect our health and allow a gradual reopening of our economy — we can see in today’s data that COVID-19 continues to place an extraordinary burden on businesses, workers and communities in Illinois,” added Erin Guthrie, director of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. “Under the governor’s leadership, our administration is committed to taking necessary action to aid in an economic recovery that will reopen our businesses and return our workers to the job. This work began with the historic and equitable launch of more than $1 billion in relief since last March and will continue in the months ahead as we invest in programs to help restore our smallest and most vulnerable businesses and to revitalize our Illinois economy.”

According to IDES, year to year Illinois farm payrolls were off 423,000 jobs in December from 2019, with almost half of those losses in leisure and hospitality (198,000). The sector of education and health services lost more than 50,000 positions, and government hiring was off almost 50,000. Only construction saw gains year to year, but that was just 1,000 additional jobs.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: “Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for teenagers (16 percent) and Hispanics (9.3 percent) increased in December. The jobless rates for adult men (6.4 percent), adult women (6.3 percent), Whites (6 percent), Blacks (9.9 percent), and Asians (5.9 percent) showed little change.”