Counties with the highest unemployment in Illinois

Despite a relatively low unemployment rate, Americans continue to fear job losses amid ongoing economic uncertainty.

Stacker compiled a list of counties with the highest unemployment rates in Illinois using Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Counties are ranked by their preliminary unemployment rate in June 2024, with initial ties broken by the number of unemployed people within that county, though some ties may remain. County-level unemployment rates are not seasonally adjusted.

Economists forecast a waning risk of recession and predict that the U.S. may instead be headed for an incremental slowdown in growth known as a "soft landing." Still, layoffs among major U.S. employers, from Google to Tesla, have sparked concern among Americans. What's more, unemployment has spiked in over half the country's states since last year, which often indicates a looming recession, a chief global economist at Piper Sandler told Business Insider. Unemployment is also up in a vast majority of U.S. metros.

Still, as of July 2024, the national unemployment rate remains relatively low at 4.3%, with only a slight increase from the previous month. For comparison, the Great Recession of 2007-09 sent unemployment rates up to 10% as of October 2009, and a full recovery took years. At the height of the COVID-19 recession in April 2020, unemployment hit 14.7%.

Regional and state employment range widely depending on local economies. Seasonally adjusted unemployment rates by state vary, ranging from just 2% in South Dakota to 5.4% in Washington D.C.

Read on to see the counties with the highest unemployment in Illinois.