Total nonfarm employment in the Quad Cities metro area decreased by approximately 1,200 jobs from June 2023 to June 2024 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The second quarter ended with approximately 183,300 nonfarm payroll jobs.

At the end of the quarter, the unemployment rate in the four-county metro area was 5.0%, up from 4.6% in March. In the six-county Quad Cities Chamber service area, the unemployment rate was 4.8%, up from 4.6% in March. In the six-county area, unemployment rates ranged from 3.4% in Muscatine County to 6.1% in Rock Island County.

The Quad Cities area experienced a normal amount of seasonal employment growth during the spring and summer months which helped bring the total number of jobs closer to the level of a year ago. However, a number of recent layoff announcements would not have been fully reflected in payroll and unemployment figures by June. Due to the already announced layoffs, third quarter jobs are expected to be further down from last year's levels.

Now that interest rates are expected to decrease in September, there could be enough of a rebound in spending to provide support to prevent a recession-like decline in employment. However, there are factors beyond interest rates that are impacting employment locally (commodity prices, in particular). Because of this, it may take somewhat longer for the employment declines to reverse.