Politics & Government
Unemployment Report: Wheaton Jobless Rate Increases Slightly
With a growing number of job openings, more job seekers who stopped searching during the depression are heading back into the job market, causing unemployment numbers to rise in Illinois.
Unemployment rates in Illinois rose slightly from January 2013 to February, to 10.5 percent and are a percent point higher from the same time in 2012, according to new figures released last week.
During the month of February, Illinois saw job growth in five metro areas and declines in seven metro areas, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
While unemployment numbers have increased slightly in Illinois, the increase comes as the state added more than 12,400 jobs in February and more people sought work, according to officials with the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES).
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"This is the counter-intuitive part of an economic recovery. If job creation is picking up, how can unemployment be picking up as well?" said IDES Director Jay Rowell in a news release. "Job growth gives workers who previously gave up their job search hope that they, too, will be hired. As such, they re-energize their work search, jump back into the labor force and push up the unemployment rate."
On April 1, Gov. Pat Quinn and the Cyber Aces Foundation announced the Illinois Governor's Cyber Challenge, a competition to fill jobs in the emerging cybersecurity workforce. The Cyber Challenge is designed to provide a pathway of learning and workforce training for Veterans and students.
Find out what's happening in Wheatonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The cyber initiative includes online training in cybersecurity at no cost to Illinois residents, a special Veterans Cyber Camp for the top performing Veterans and the championship competition to identify the state's top cyber talent for public and private sector opportunities, according to a news release.
In Wheaton, the unemployment rate rose .5 percent to 7.2 percent overall in February. That is up from 6.1 percent in February 2012.
IDES generally reports unemployment figures for municipalities with populations of 25,000 or more people. The numbers measure unemployment for residents who live in a certain town, not those who work in the town.
Statewide, the unemployment rate increased from 10.1 percent in January 2013 to 10.5 percent in February. Compared with February 2012, unemployment has risen 1 percent.
The U.S. average unemployment rate was 8.1 percent in February 2013.
DUPAGE COUNTY
Feb.
2013
Jan.
2013
Feb.
2012
% Change
Over Month
% Change
Over Year
Bolingbrook
(DuPage Portion)
7.6 7.2 6.7 0.40.9
Downers Grove
Naperville
(DuPage Portion)
7.9 6.9 6.4 0.6 1.1St. Charles
(DuPage Portion)
4.1 3.1 2.9 1.0 1.2 Wheaton 7.2 6.7 6.1 .5 1.1 Woodridge 8.3 8.0 7.5 .3 .8 DuPage County 8.4 8.0 7.3 .4 1.1 Illinois 10.5 10.1 9.5 .4 1.0 U.S. Average 8.1 8.5 8.7 -0.4 -0.6Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
