Springfield has one of the best unemployment rates in the state… despite a net loss of jobs in 2017.
The December jobless rate locally was 3.9%… down from 4.8% one year earlier.
Springfield is tied with Champaign-Urbana for the second-best unemployment rate in Illinois, one-tenth of one-percent behind Bloomingon-Normal.
But the city lost a total of 800 jobs from the end of 2016 to the end of 2017, one of only three metro areas in the state to see a year-to-year decline.