Illinois adds jobs yet unemployment rises to 10.1 percent

by Emily Dietrich Illinois’ economy added 30,000 jobs in the month of October. However, the state’s unemployment rate ticked up to 10.1 percent. This contradiction leaves many wondering: did the Illinois jobs market improve or not? To evaluate the jobs market, economists rely on two surveys produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS. The...

by Emily Dietrich

Illinois’ economy added 30,000 jobs in the month of October. However, the state’s unemployment rate ticked up to 10.1 percent. This contradiction leaves many wondering: did the Illinois jobs market improve or not?

To evaluate the jobs market, economists rely on two surveys produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS. The first survey is the Current Employment Statistics, or CES. CES surveys businesses across the country, looking at the growth of non-farm payrolls. The CES survey reported that Illinois companies added 30,000 people to its payrolls last month. While this number is encouraging, it doesn’t tell the whole story about how many people are actually employed and unemployed in Illinois.

That information is derived from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics, or LAUS. LAUS surveys individuals and the self-employed to tabulate the size of the labor force, employment, and unemployment. With this data, LAUS calculates a state’s unemployment rate. These numbers show that while 2,995 people found employment in October, 5,693 more people were added to Illinois’ unemployment rolls.

The Institute focuses on the employment and labor force data because they reveal the number of Illinoisans that have work. While the corporate payroll numbers have increased by 40,600 since the beginning of the year, the number of employed Illinoisans has fallen by 90,384. Clearly, Illinois continues to have problems.

Understanding the employment news is vital. Illinois’s unemployment rate has progressively ticked up for six months. More and more Illinois families are struggling to find gainful employment.

Looking to the national numbers helps us understand the impact of the jobs numbers on the economy.

Nationally, the unemployment rate has been stable since April. Illinois, on the other hand, has experienced sharp increases this year. Right now, Illinois’ unemployment rate stands over a percentage point higher than the national average of 9 percent.

In fact, Illinois was one of only five states that saw an increase in its unemployment rate. In October, Illinois added 5,700 people to its unemployment rolls, an increase of 0.9 percent. The total number of unemployed Illinoisans now stands at 668,800 people.

The increase in the number of unemployed people in Illinois contrasts the decrease in the national unemployment rate. This indicates that Illinois’ public policies are not competitive. As the country slowly moves toward lower unemployment and overall higher levels of hiring, Illinois struggles to compete.

As we move toward Thanksgiving, Illinoisans may be hard pressed to find government actions that they are grateful for. Cook County just passed a budget that increased taxes and expanded taxable definitions on many products. Toll prices are set to spike with the New Year. And an oncoming pension crisis looms overhead.

Another major area of concern is Illinois’ debt. Policy-makers need to make hard decisions to get Illinois’ fiscal crisis under control. With an extensive tax package proposed for next week’s Veto Session, Illinois’ continued unemployment mess indicates that the same tactics of raising taxes on everyone, then dolling out special tax incentives to a select few, do not work.

Instead the state should push to lower and broaden the overall tax structure while getting spending under control. Only through fiscal responsibility and creating a pro-growth tax environment for everyone will Illinois encourage businesses to hire in time to give all Illinoisans something to be grateful for this holiday season.