The improving national economy may be impacting Illinois, although there’s still room for improvement.

According to the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES), preliminary figures show nonfarm payrolls increased by 24,000 jobs in January 2019 over December 2018. IDES also reported during the week that job growth during the three-month period of November to January averaged a monthly gain of 12,500 jobs.

However, the agency revised its previously reported December jobs gain downward from 13,600 to 7,400. IDES also notes the state’s unemployment rate remained at 4.3 percent in January, unchanged from December. Illinois’ unemployment rate is .5 percentage points higher than the 3.8 percent national unemployment rate reported for February.