U.S. payrolls impress, employment growth disappoints and Illinois drags behind

Had Illinois managed the recession and recovery on par with the rest of the U.S., there would be an additional 300,000 Illinoisans working today, and an additional 220,000 payroll jobs.

The national unemployment rate stayed at 5.8 percent in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS. The number of people employed in the U.S. grew by barely 4,000, while the workforce expanded by 119,000 and the number of Americans unemployed jumped by 115,000, according to the household-survey portion of the BLS report.

But weak employment growth was offset by a historic surge in payroll jobs.

Payrolls grew by 321,000 in November, the best single month of payroll-jobs growth since January 2012. In addition, the payroll counts for September and October were revised upward by 15,000 and 29,000, respectively.

There are now 910,000 more Americans working than when the recession began. The U.S. broke even earlier this year, largely driven by the employment gains made in Texas. The Lone Star State has 1.35 million more people working than when the recession began, accounting for more than 100 percent of the country’s net employment gains.

By comparison, there are 256,000 fewer Illinoisans working over the same time period, the largest worker gap in the U.S.

For the U.S. as a whole, the number of payroll jobs lost during the recession has been regained, according to BLS’ business establishment survey. The U.S. now has 1.68 million more payroll jobs today than in January 2008, the prerecession peak.

Illinois, on the other hand, is still struggling toward a payroll-jobs recovery. The Land of Lincoln is still down 138,200 jobs. That leaves Illinois with the second-biggest jobs gap in the entire country; only 2,000 jobs ahead of New Jersey.

Illinois is amidst one of the weakest economic recoveries in the nation. A slow economy and unhealthy business environment are thwarting human potential in the Prairie State, especially in downstate communities, where seven of 10 major Illinois metro areas are not recovering at all. In addition, Illinois had a record number of households on food stamps this Thanksgiving.

Illinois has lagged far behind the national recovery, both in terms of putting people back to work and creating payroll jobs.

Had Illinois managed the recession and recovery on par with the rest of the U.S., there would be an additional 300,000 Illinoisans working today, and an additional 220,000 payroll jobs. This represents a stunning loss of opportunity as a result of misguided economic policies.

Illinois’ only solution is more growth; Springfield’s broken budgets cannot be made whole without it. Neither the lack of opportunity nor the massive exporting of talent will end without a robust agenda to make Illinois grow again.