Story posted Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Local Jobless Rates Highest In Des Plaines, Elk Grove, Niles
Des Plaines, Elk Grove Village and Niles had the highest unemployment rates in the Journal & Topics Newspapers' Northwest suburban coverage area in May, according to a recently released unemployment report issued by the state.
Though all Northwest suburban communities were below Cook County's unemployment rate of 10.9%, Des Plaines topped the state average of 9.9% with a 10.5% unemployment rate.
Des Plaines also had the largest yearly increase in unemployment at 4.9%, comparing May 2008 to May 2009, followed by Elk Grove Village at 4.5% and Wheeling at 4.3%.
The greatest increases in unemployment between April and May of this year were seen in Elk Grove Village, Arlington Hts. and Park Ridge. All three of those communities saw their unemployment rates jump by 0.9% in the period of a month.
Glenview and Buffalo Grove carry the lowest unemployment rates in the Journal-area, both at 7.2%. Those two communities also had the smallest increases in unemployment from one year ago with Buffalo Grove's rate increasing by only 2.7% between May 2008 and May 2009 and Glenview's rate increasing 2.8% in the last year.
Rates reflected in the Tuesday, June 23 Illinois Dept. of Employment Security report reflect unemployment of residents of their respective towns and do not reflect changes in employment numbers of individual businesses in the communities.
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