Rockford Unemployment Drops From 22.5% to 9.7%

Get our free mobile app

Last April our area, and cities and towns across the country were suffering. COVID-19 came with businesses shutting down and people losing jobs. Last April the Rockford unemployment was a staggering 22.5%...today those numbers are significantly lower. WIFR

That is a 12.8% drop in unemployment since last April...the city of Rockford added 7600 jobs in the last twelve months. The breakdown of job types goes like this:

Leisure-Hospitality numbers went up to 3,900. Jobs in the retail trade were up by 1,400. The  transportation, warehousing, utilities industry went up 1,200. The  "others" category makes up 900 jobs in their random industries. Positions in educational and health services added 800 more jobs and finally construction jobs were up 600. SO happy to see Rockford and surrounding communities back working again.

In other surrounding counties, Ogle has a great bounce back as well. The Ogle County unemployment numbers are down to 6.2%.

Stephenson County is down to 5.9% after jumping to 13.4% back in April of 2020.

There are still PLENTY of local businesses that are hiring and are in desperate need of people to work for them. Every where you turn, there's a "now hiring" sign up on a business. Hopefully things are starting to turn the page, and we can get all of Rockford and surrounding areas working again.

Over 400,000 total claims were recorded across the country last week. That's the lowest during the pandemic. With a bust summer into fall and then the seasonal work going into winter 2021, you would have to imagine that these jobs will be filling up locally.