Illinois’ job market continued to struggle in January as the national economy grew. The job troubles were seen in eight of Illinois’ 13 metropolitan areas, with Champaign-Urbana hit the hardest.

While most Illinois metropolitan areas saw job gains last month, unemployment rates remain higher than the U.S. rate in 11 of the state’s 13 metro areas.

Illinois’ metro areas already face unemployment problems, with some of the nation’s worst rates. They could be hit harder by a recession than other places in the nation.

The latest job numbers show Illinois continues struggling to recover pandemic job losses, a bad sign for its lagging economy as recession fears rise.

Illinois’ lagging pandemic recovery continued across its cities in July. Only 1 metropolitan area has recovered from the pandemic.

Only Bloomington has recouped early 2020 job losses, which is bad news for Illinois’ lagging economy as recession fears increase.

Despite a full year of job gains, all Illinois metropolitan areas are missing jobs since the pandemic began and the recovery stalled. While May brought job gains statewide, only eight metro areas saw gains while seven saw losses.