New figures from the Illinois Department of Employment Security show the unemployment rate remained unchanged last month in Evanston after a sharp decline in March.
The figures for April, released today, show the jobless rate at 5.9% here, unchanged from revised figures for the month before. That’s still far better than before pandemic-related job losses really kicked in in April 2020, but nearly double the pre-pandemic rate in early 2020.
The same general pattern is seen in jobless figures for the Chicago metro area and the entire state.
Although the jobless rate here remained unchanged, the number of people in the labor force crew by 292 people in April to a total of 36,800. Meanwhile the number of people unemployed and actively looking for work grew by just 16 people. So, while the jobless rate didn’t change, more people had jobs.
Skokie’s jobless rate in April was 7.1%, up from a revised 6.4% in March. Wilmette’s rate was 4.0% in April, down from a revised 4.2% in March.