March jobless rate drops in Illinois metro areas

State officials say the March unemployment rate dropped in every Illinois metropolitan area for a record seventh consecutive month.

A report released Thursday by the Illinois Department of Employment Security shows that the Rockford metropolitan area with the state's highest unemployment rate, at 13.3 percent. That's almost 4 percentage points lower than the same time last year.

The Kankakee-Bradley metropolitan area March rate was second-highest, at 12.7 percent.

Other metro areas with jobless rates over 10 percent were:

• Decatur, 10.7 percent
• Danville, 10.6 percent
• Lake County, Ill.-Kenosha, Wis., area at 10.3 percent

Areas with rates below 10 percent were:

• the St. Louis area, 9.6 percent
• Peoria, 9.1 percent
• Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, 8.7 percent
• Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, 8.1 percent
• Champaign-Urbana, 7.8 percent
• Springfield, 7.6 percent
• Bloomington-Normal, 6.9 percent