The unemployment rate in Peoria has increased to 8.1 percent during the month of December. It has gone up a bit since November, when it was at 7.9 percent. However, while the percentage of unemployed individuals has increased in the past month, the percentage is still down from 8.7, which was the unemployment rate during the month of December in 2010.

The area of Peoria has actually showed some improvement during 2011 and the economy in the area has made some improvement during the 2011 year. The jobs analyst for the Illinois Department of Employment Security, Norman Kelewitz, says, “For many months, the economy has been improving. There were 8,600 more jobs created in the Peoria metro area in the month of December over December 2010.”

Throughout the year, the manufacturing sector alone gained nearly 4,500 jobs. A number of other sectors experience job gains, including professional business services with a gain of 1,800 new jobs. The number of jobs available in the area during the end of 2011 was 188,300 which is a major increase from the amount of jobs available at the same period of time the prior year. There were 179,700 jobs available in the area during December of 2010.

Kelewitz says, “The construction category was up by 700 while there were 600 more jobs in the educational sector for the year.”

In Peoria County, the unemployment rate during December of 2011 was at 8.6 percent, which was a very small increase from November, when the percentage was 8.5 percent. However, the unemployment was still considerably lower in December of 2011 than it was in December of 2010, when it was at 9.2 percent.

In Tazewell County, the unemployment rate during December of 2011 was at 7.3 percent, up from the 7.5 percent during the month of December but much like Peoria County, still considerably lower than it was in December of 201, when it was at 8.4 percent.

In Woodford County, the unemployment rate remained at 6.3 percent in both November and December of 2011. However, it was lower than the 7.3 percent rate during December of 2010. Unemployment in Fulton County increased from November to December but was still a tad bit lower than it was during December of 2010. In many of the other counties in the city, including Bloomington-Normal and Rockford, this was the exact same case.

The jobless rate in the city of Peoria during the month of December was at 9 percent and was unchanged from the prior month of November in 2011, where it was also at 9 percent. However, the jobless rate in the city was still down by 0.3 percent from the previous year in December of 2010.