Unemployment numbers take center stage in Illinois governor race

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The unemployment rate in Illinois has to its lowest level since December of 2008, falling to 7.9 percent last month according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security, and those numbers immediately took center stage Thursday in the race for governor.

Governor Pat Quinn had no public events on his schedule until a few minutes after nine Thursday morning when his office announced a visit to a Cicero manufacturing company. Then one hour later, news that Illinois' unemployment rate had fallen a whopping one-half of one percent in one month.

"Unemployment is at its lowest rate in the last five and a half years," Quinn said.

The governor used the word "celebration" during his sudden visit to the United Gasket Company factory in Cicero. He says the half percentage point drop in the state unemployment rate from 8.4 percent in March to 7.9 percent in April was historic.

"(Thursday) was the largest drop in unemployment in the history of those statistics in Illinois," he said. "We have more people working today in our state than at any time since I've been governor."

Illinois' 7.9 percent is still higher than the unemployment rates in neighboring Midwestern states, including Michigan with a lower 7.4 percent. The Quinn administration's commerce director called Thursday's news a sign the state has joined the nation's economic recovery.

"It's just one indicator of many that shows that we are really in, we've turned the corner," Adam Pollet said. "This is a growth economy."

Outside the event, clowns hired by Republican candidate for governor Bruce Rauner demonstrated. Rauner issued a statement saying, "It's disappointing to see Pat Quinn celebrate Illinois keeping the worst unemployment rate in the Midwest and one of the highest in the entire nation. Illinois should be leading, not lagging behind."

"There are those, I guess, on the other side that are unhappy whenever there's good economic news," Quinn said.

The governor spent little time discussing other topics.

On the lawsuit alleging his administration made illegal political hires at the Illinois department of Transportation, Quinn said he has ordered an audit.

His aides ended the news conference before any questions on the state's controversial anti-violence program that's under federal and local investigation.