The Illinois unemployment rate went up slightly to 8.9 percent in July from the June figure of 8.7 percent. State and local government saw the most job losses, with 7,900 jobs lost between June and July. There has been a net loss of 15,400 Illinois government jobs between July 2011 and last month, which is part of a national trend.

Public sector jobs losses are growing as some sectors such as manufacturing have seen modest month-to-month improvements. There was a 28,600 net increase in state manufacturing jobs between July 2011 and July 2012.