CHAMPAIGN – Unemployment across Illinois rose to 9.1 percent in August, the third straight month of increases in the state, the Illinois Department of Employment Security said Thursday.

State officials say the increases are starting to mirror a similar period of rising unemployment last summer. But the department’s monthly report on statewide joblessness indicated that even hiring in manufacturing, a reliable source of job growth in Illinois this year, started to level off.

Unemployment in July was 8.9 percent. Increases in the unemployment rate in June, July and August followed nine months of slow but steady declines.