Employment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the local area have been released. Knox County Area Partnership President Ken Springer informs the unemployment rate and labor force numbers reflect good news for the area:
“The Galesburg micropolitan area, which includes all of Knox and Warren Counties combined, the most recent numbers come out from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Our area has an unemployment rate of 4.9 percent and a labor force of 20,976. That is about a full percentage point lower on unemployment than we were this time last year and our labor force has about 100 more workers than we had this time last year, so pretty decent news for the labor market as far as July goes.”
As for the national level of the broader job market, Springer states the Bureau of Labor Statistics released that for August, 22,000 new jobs were added nationwide, which was below the average expectation of 75,000 jobs.
