The state's unemployment rate inched up slightly from May to June. The latest rate increased to eight-point-seven percent, up a tenth of a point. It's the first time in nine months unemployment has gone up. Despite that, the Illinois Department of Employment Security says total unemployment has dropped 24-percent since January of last year. IDES spokesman Greg Rivara says the state did add 47-hundred private sector jobs last month. He says manufacturing was one area of growth. In the last year, Rivara says the state has added nearly 22-thousand manufacturing jobs.
