Bryce Edwards/Flickr.com

Bryce Edwards/Flickr.com

This week’s segment of Winners & Losers will focus on the fact that the U.S. unemployment rate has hit a four-year low, which is good news for the American worker. Chicago, on the other hand, is the recipient of bad news.

A recent study named the Windy City the most corrupt town in the country. It is the city where Rod Blagojevich grew up, after all.

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Winner: The number of Americans filing unemployment claims dropped by 13,000 to 348,000 last week, according to the U.S. Labor Department. That’s the lowest number since 2008. This is welcome news for workers, as it means not only have companies halted layoffs but also that they’re hiring. What’s the proof? The economy saw the addition of 243,000 jobs in January—the most in nine months—the Associated Press reported. Collectively, these factors have lowered the unemployment rate to 8.3 percent. For five consecutive months, the unemployment rate has dropped. Of course, an 8.3 rate of joblessness is still higher than economists would like. Moreover, people of color suffer from unemployment in greater numbers than white Americans do. Still, tens of thousands of new jobs and lower unemployment overall are nothing to sneeze at.

Losers: With 1,531 federal public corruption convictions in the Chicago area over three decades, the Windy City tops the list of most corrupt American cities, according to a University of Illinois study. Disgraced ex-Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, raised in Chicago, will begin serving a 14-year sentence in March on a corruption conviction related to his attempt to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat. Before the Blagojevich scandal, former Illinois governor George Ryan was convicted of racketeering in 2006. The study pointed out, “For a century and a half, public corruption has been a shameful aspect of both Illinois and Chicago politics. …corruption is a serious problem that hurts all citizens who put their trust – and tax dollars — in the hands of politicians who abuse the power they are given.” Los Angeles and New York appeared on the list as the second and third most corrupt cities, respectively.