Don't let the percentages fool you.

Fewer people in East Central Illinois are working today than were working a year ago.

That may come as a surprise in the wake of Thursday's announcement that Champaign County's unemployment rate in August was 9 percent — down from 9.7 percent in August 2010.

But figures from the Illinois Department of Employment Security show 90,123 Champaign County were employed in August, down from 92,921 a year earlier.

All 11 counties in East Central Illinois showed fewer people employed in August than a year earlier.

In most of those counties, the ranks of the employed dropped by 2 percent to 3 percent over the course of the year.

But in only three of those counties — Douglas, Moultrie and Piatt — was the August unemployment rate higher than a year ago.

In the other eight counties, the August unemployment rate was either the same as — or lower than — a year ago.

For example, Vermilion County's unemployment rate was 10.5 percent in August, down from 12 percent a year earlier.

But the number of people employed in Vermilion County in August was 32,661, down from 33,285 in August 2010.

Tom Austin, a spokesman for the Department of Employment Security, said the calculation of unemployment rates is affected by the size of the overall labor force.

The size of the labor force can change as people drop out of the work force to attend school — or leave school to go to work, he said.

Labor force size can also be affected by people moving in and out of the area and by discouraged workers leaving the labor force.

For statistical purposes, the Department of Employment Security counts as "unemployed" only those who are out of work and actively applying for jobs. It doesn't count discouraged workers who have given up looking for work.

While the number of employed workers was down year-to-year in every area county, the number of unemployed workers was also down.

In Champaign County, the number of unemployed workers in August was 8,887, down from 9,974 a year earlier.

In Vermilion County, the number of unemployed was 3,849 in August, down from 4,527 a year earlier.

Here are the August unemployment rates for area counties, and how they compared with July:

• — Champaign, 9 percent, unchanged.
• — Coles, 9.7, down from 9.8.
• — DeWitt, 8.3, down from 8.4.
• — Douglas, 9.2, up from 8.2.
• — Edgar, 10.1, up from 9.9.
• — Ford, 8.4, unchanged.
• — Iroquois, 8.3, up from 8.1.
• — McLean, 7.4, unchanged.
• — Moultrie, 8.8, up from 7.3.
• — Piatt, 8.5, up from 7.5.
• — Vermilion, 10.5, up from 10.3.

Among area cities, Champaign saw its unemployment rate drop from 9.4 percent in July to 9.2 percent in August, and Urbana saw a decline from 10.2 percent to 9.9 percent. Meanwhile, Danville's rate rose from 11.5 percent to 12.1 percent.

Here are figures for the number of people with jobs in area counties from August 2010 and August 2011:

County      August 2010       August 2011

Champaign   92,921      90,123

Coles       24,309      23,746

DeWitt      8,268       8,067

Douglas     9,379       9,125

Edgar       9,316 9,244

Ford 6,153       5,968

Iroquois    15,728      15,575

McLean      86,129      84,160

Moultrie    7,492       7,067

Piatt       7,868       7,631

Vermilion   33,285      32,661