Area unemployment rates show declines

An 8.8 percent unemployment rate is high, but it is an improvement over the same time last year. The Illinois Department of Employment Security says La Salle County’s August 2014 unemployment was 8.8 percent, down from 11.1 percent last August.

Putnam County’s unemployment rate also declined from 9.7 percent to 7.8 percent last month. The decline in Bureau County was slight, going from 9.2 percent in August 2013 to 8.9 percent this August.

For the Ottawa-Streator Area, gains were made in the transportation-warehousing-Utilities sector but jobs were lost in the manufacturing and government sectors.