When the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released a rather encouraging jobs report showing that the national unemployment rate actually fell in July --  for the first time in 15 months --  we wondered if Illinois' rate would follow suit. Today the state's latest jobless figures are out and unfortunately, the Prairie State hasn't joined the upswing yet, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security. The AP reports:

Illinois' jobless rate rose to 10.4 percent in July even though the pace of job losses is slowing.

That's up slightly from 10.3 percent in June [...]

[T]he state lost another 13,000 jobs in July, bringing the number of unemployed statewide to 692,500.

Here's our updated graph showing the national and Illinois rate since the beginning of the year: