Illinois' jobless rate is now at 7.5 percent. It's the third consecutive monthly decrease. And it's at its lowest level since 2008. The director of the state Department of Employment Security, Jay Rowell, calls May's results ``another month of encouraging data.''
However, Illinois' unemployment rate is still well above the national rate of 6.3 percent.
The total number of unemployed people in the state fell 4.6 percent in May to 492,400. That number, though, only includes the unemployed who are still actively seeking work.