Massive Increase in Labor Force in Peoria Metro

In July the Peoria Metro hit its highest unemployment rate of the recession.  We expected the numbers to skyrocket because of summer furloughs and major layoff announcements from some of the region’s largest employers.  However, we anticipated a steady decline to follow.  While we did see a decline in August and September, the unemployment number for October has risen again.   The reason why, we have found, is something we had not earlier anticipated.

The Peoria Metro has experienced an enormous increase of 1,869 people in the workforce from September to October.  These are not recently laid off workers as one might think.  These are people who are either new to this region or were not previously working at all.  Historically the labor force is fairly stable between the months of September-October fluctuating on average 200-300 people…again we have seen an increase of nearly 2000 in a month.  The current labor force is 209,405, the highest this region has ever seen.

We would like to think the increase is due to people realizing it is better here and relocating to the Peoria Metro hoping to find employment.   But another possibility for the drastic increase in the Labor Force is that many people who had not previously worked (i.e. stay at home mom’s) have decided to enter the workforce as spouses may have been laid off or taken salary cuts.  One more possibility is retired workers may be looking to re-enter the workforce because their investments have taken major hits by the market. 

The Peoria Metro has added 405 jobs from September to October, which is much needed good news.  We acknowledge that we have lost a tremendous number of jobs, but we also must realize that we have gained an exorbitant amount of people in our workforce at the same time. 
 
While we are awaiting specific industry numbers for the month of October, we do know that between the months of August and September we lost 900 jobs in the private sector.  Leisure and Hospitality lost 500 jobs and Trade and Transportation specifically in Retail and Wholesale trade lost 200 jobs.  That’s quite a hit.  Consider this also, while we have 8000 less jobs in the MSA since last year, we have 3000 more people in our workforce than last year.