New figures show unemployment rates improved last month across East Central Illinois. 

Kankakee County leads the state with an unemployment rate of 12.9 percent.  Despite that number, Kankakee County’ rate is below the 13.7% in February of 2011.

Rockford’s rate, usually the highest, is showing improvement.  Rockford’s rate dropped from 14.1 in February of 2011 to 12.8 last month. McLean County has Illinois’ lowest unemployment are at 7.5%.

Vermilion County’s February unemployment rate of 11.1 percent was down a half-percent from January’s 11.6 percent rate.  In Danville, the unemployment rate fell from 11.4 to 10.7 percent.

In Champaign County, the jobless rate fell from 9.1 percent in January to 8.4 percent in February.  It was 8.6 percent in February of last year. The City of Champaign saw its unemployment rate fall from 8.7 percent in January to 7.8 percent in February.  Urbana’s jobless rate fell from 9.6 percent in January to 8.6 percent in February.

In Iroquois County the jobless rate fell slightly from 10.7 to 10.6 percent. The Ford County rate fell from 11.8 in 2011 to 10.3 last month.  Livingston County is at 9.5, down from 10.1 a year ago.

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