The state's unemployment rate is holding steady at six-point-six percent. Employment Security Spokesman Greg Rivara says the rate didn't change in the month of October, even though the state lost about two-thousand jobs.

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Rivara says there was some growth in the private sector, particularly in the education, health care, and manufacturing industries. He says there are 40-thousand more private-sector jobs now in Illinois compared to this time last year. The national unemployment rate is five-point-nine percent.