Some citites don't feel effects
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) - Across Illinois unemployment rates are going up.
But there are islands of relatively low unemployment like Champaign-Urbana, Springfield and Carbondale. Robin Hanna of Western Illinois University's Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs says those places have one thing in common: government jobs.
Hanna says towns with big state or federal employers are enjoying protection because the effects of tough times on government spending tend to be delayed. University of Illinois economist J. Fred Giertz (GERTZ) says those effects tend to be muted, too. Universities and other government employers usually don't lay off many workers.
In Champaign-Urbana, the university is helping hold unemployment down to 6.9% The state average is 7.2% Dorinda Miller is a clerk at the university. She worries it will cut jobs.
But Gertz says such cuts, if they happen, will be relatively slight.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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