Rockford jobless rate nears 20 percent; 11 of 12 metro area rates at 10 percent or higher

Rockford jobless rate nears 20 percent

CHICAGO — The greater Rockford area is just a few tenths of a point shy of an inglorious milestone: a 20 percent jobless rate.

Data released Tuesday showed none of Illinois’ top 12 metropolitan regions are fairing well, but unemployment in the Rockford area is the state’s highest at 19.7 percent.

“It depresses me but doesn’t surprise me,” economics professor Edward Stuart said about the new January figure. “This recession’s been tough on construction and manufacturing — and when you talk construction and manufacturing in Illinois, that’s Rockford.”

Once known for its many parts makers and aerospace companies, the northern Illinois community has seen its manufacturing base thin out for years. But now, Stuart said, Rockford’s jobless rate threatens to rival the city’s 1983 figure; it soared to a national high of 25 percent then.

Rockford doesn’t have large education or health sectors that can buoy economies in hard items. Stuart said that helps explain why it saw the biggest percentage point rise in its jobless rate, from 13.9 percent in January 2009 to 19.7 percent this January.

If the jobs situation isn’t quite as bleak elsewhere in Illinois, it’s hardly encouraging.

Eleven out of the top 12 metropolitan areas have rates of 10 percent or higher, according to the January numbers released by the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Chicago’s metro area is in the middle of the pack with an 11.6 percent jobless rate.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate for the state overall in January was 11.3 percent, the same department reported last week. The figures released Tuesday weren’t seasonally adjusted.

Many of the other worst-hit metropolitan regions in Illinois also have historically relied on manufacturing.

They include the Kankakee-Bradley area, which had a January jobless rate of 16 percent, second worst after Rockford. The Peoria area had a 13 percent unemployment rate for January, a 5.5 percentage point jump from January 2009. Equipment manufacturer Caterpillar, which is based in East Peoria, cut hundreds of jobs last year.

Illinois employment has been on a downward trend for going on three years. With the latest January figures, previous-year jobless rates have been higher for all 12 metro areas for the 32 straight months now.

That doesn’t bode well for a strong jobs recovery in the state, said Marureen O’Donnell, the director of the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

“Economic downturns of this magnitude most likely will show job growth on a national level before sustained positive progress is evident here at home,” she said in a Tuesday statement.

Stuart, who teaches economics at Northeastern Illinois University, said Illinois needs an injection of stimulus money from what he hopes will be a second federal stimulus bill later this year. Other economists say Illinois should focus, instead, on cutting taxes and red tape they argue drives investors away.

Stuart said he’s not optimistic Rockford will be able to pull itself from the economic doldrums anytime soon.

“I hate to be pessimistic, but, in the short term, over the next six months or a year, I don’t see light at end of tunnel,” he said. “The recession’s been so bad and so deep. It’s going to take a whole to get out of it.”

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