Peoria Standard

Rep. Thomas Bennett spoke about the declining rate of unemployment since the lockdown was lifted.

In a Monday Facebook post, Bennett recapped the week's news, including unemployment figures.

In a video posted to his Facebook page, Bennett made this statement: "The unemployment picture has been gradually improving since the lifting of the lockdown. The latest report gave us a look at how the different regions of the state are doing. In our part of the state, unemployment was down in the areas around Bloomington and Champaign and Peoria, but it was up slightly in the Kankakee area, and Danville was unchanged compared to where things stood one year ago. The region with the biggest gain was the area around Chicago and the suburbs and the Quad Cities area also did well overall the unemployment rate in Illinois went down by 1.6% from a year ago."

In the June 28 primary, Bennett ran unopposed in the Republican race for District 106, according to the Peoria Journal Star.

Statewide unemployment has declined by 1.6% from one year ago, with the biggest geographical gains occurring in the Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights region, where numbers improved from 6.8% last year to 4.2% this year. Another big gainer was the Quad Cities area of northwestern Illinois in which unemployment fell from 5.3% last year to 3.8% this year.

In his weekly report, Bennett linked to a June news release regarding the unemployment situation. According to the report, the metro areas which had the largest over-the-year percentage increases in total nonfarm jobs were the Chicago Metropolitan Division (+5.1%, +182,600), the Rockford MSA (+4.8%, +6,700), and the Bloomington MSA (+4.6%, +4,100). Industries that saw job growth in a majority of metro areas included: Leisure & Hospitality (fourteen areas); Manufacturing and Other Services (thirteen areas each); Government (twelve areas); Professional & Business Services (eleven areas); Education & Health Services (ten areas); Mining and Construction and Transportation, Warehousing and Utilities (nine areas each); and Wholesale Trade (eight areas).