The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) late last week reported that the state unemployment rate fell .04% to 5.3% in December based on preliminary data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the IDES. During the month, the three industry sectors with the largest over the month job gains were Professional and Business Services, Trade, Transportation and Utilities and Leisure and Hospitality. State economic officials say the data reflects the continuing encouraging growth across the Illinois economy. The state unemployment rate was 1.4% higher than the national unemployment rate of 3.9%in December, but down 2.7% from the 2020 December jobless rate. Individual county unemployment figures for December here in southeastern Illinois including Lawrence County are not yet available from the IDES.