Results tagged “chicagometro”

For the second straight month, the unemployment rate in Chicago fell even as the national rate increased from July to August. While still at rates not seen in 20+ years, the seasonally unadjusted jobless rate for the Chicago metro are in August was 9.6 percent, down from 10.7 percent in July. While the total number of unemployed people in the area was still more than 190,000 over August 2008, it's a baby step in the right direction. We hope.

The jobless rate in the Chicago metro are hit a 26-year high during May. The "seasonally unadjusted" rate hit 10.7 percent in May 2009, the highest the area has seen since August 1983. According to Crain's:

There were 185,900 fewer people employed in the metro area last month compared with the same month in 2008. That figure, the highest among the 12 Illinois metro areas reported, suggests that the recession continues to hamper the local labor market.

Feel like there are just more people walking and driving around the Chicagoland area? That's because there are. Census data shows from July 2007 to July 2008, the Chicago area increased by 73,000 people. Kendall County was fourth among the nation's fastest-growing counties. With 5,294,664 people, Cook County is the nation's second-largest county. Overall, the Chicagoland area, which the Census considers the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet triangle, is approaching a population of 10 million with 9,569,624 men, women, and children milling about, good enough for third in the nation behind NYC and L.A. [ABC 7, WBBM]