County’s job market worst since 1983

McHenry County’s job market officially became the worst in more than a quarter-century.

The Illinois Department of Employment Security said Thursday that McHenry County’s unemployment rate rose to 10.5 percent in May, up from 9.8 percent in April.

Kane County rose to 10.9 percent in May from 10.4 percent in April.

It is the first time McHenry County has seen double-digit unemployment rates since June 1983, when it reached 10.3 percent. The county’s high-water mark since 1974 – when IDES began keeping official county statistics – is 13.8 percent in February 1983.

A total of 19,016 workers remained unemployed in the county in May. The latest national figures released Thursday showed that 6.74 million Americans currently are receiving unemployment benefits.

Of the four McHenry County cities tracked by IDES, McHenry still had the highest unemployment rate at 11.3 percent, up from 10.6 percent in April.

Crystal Lake rose to 10.5 percent from 9.6 percent in April. Lake in the Hills rose to 9.9 percent from 9.1 percent in April, and Algonquin rose to 8.9 percent from 8.4 percent in April.

So what might begin to pull the county out of its unemployment slump? Surprisingly, it could be the construction industry.

According to Manpower’s Employment Outlook Survey for the third quarter, released earlier this month, construction is among the top five industries expected to show the best prospects in the next year.

“What I’m anticipating is that construction does pick up in the summer [of 2010], so we’re probably seeing a bit of that in the survey,” Manpower Regional Director Ann Edmunds said. “We were encouraged, cautiously, that there wasn’t any more slippage in what we were hearing. It was a far more positive survey than what we’ve seen in the past.”

Although local and national unemployment rates are expected to continue rising through the summer, Edmunds said the survey showed businesses in the area finding some footing after months of losses.

“That’s what we’ve heard; it’s not backsliding at the rate it was, it’s stabilizing,” she said. “It doesn’t mean we’re headed for explosive growth, but it’s stabilizing, and that’s a very important factor in job growth. I think it’s a confidence issue, as well.”

Edmunds said her staffing office in Chicago already was seeing the first signs of rehirings in one particularly hard-hit sector – financial services.

“We’re seeing demand coming back in financial services, although niched and in pockets, we are seeing some increase in hiring,” she said, “which is positive because banks and insurance had the most major cutbacks.”