Illinois lost 3,200 payroll jobs in March, and the state’s unemployment rate ticked down to 8.4 percent from 8.7 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Illinois’ month-over-month change in payroll jobs was the third-worst nationally. Only Pennsylvania and Virginia lost more jobs. This news comes fresh on the heels of the announcement by...
Myth: Gov. Pat Quinn says that Illinois is a regional leader in job creation, and that the state is making a comeback. Fact: Illinois has ranked at the bottom of regional job comparisons since the Great Recession hit. Illinoisans suffer a jobless rate that is the second-worst in the nation and the highest in the...
This session, a bill was introduced to the Illinois General Assembly that would impose draconian regulations on Uber and Lyft’s ridesharing programs. This legislation was crafted by the cab unions with the intention of drastically increasing regulation so as to maintain monopoly control over the urban transportation market. In addition to stifling the free market,...
Illinois’ 10 largest metropolitan areas continue to be plagued with joblessness, according to a release by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This news comes on the heels of no monthly improvement in the state jobless rate, which at 8.7 percent is 2 points higher than the national average. Illinois has the second highest jobless rate...
The taxi lobby has been trying to get Chicago to destroy ridesharing services like UberX and Lyft, but it hasn’t worked because the services are just too popular in the city. So now the taxi industry has turned to Springfield for help crushing the competition, and it looks like state legislators might be about to...
The Illinois Senate passed Senate Bill 2776 to lower the cost to create a Limited Liability Company to $39 from $500. This piece of legislation, which rightfully received bipartisan support, will take effect immediately upon receiving Gov. Pat Quinn’s signature. LLC fees are unnecessary and harm low-income entrepreneurs. In fact, LLC fees function like a...
The U.S. jobless rate remained at 6.7 percent in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The national jobless measure has not improved for three months. U.S. payrolls picked up 192,000 workers in March, slightly below expectations of 200,000. Employment gains were made in professional and business services (57,000), food and drink services (30,000),...
I don’t usually enjoy sitting through Chicago City Council committee meetings. The ones I’ve attended have typically involved aldermen blustering about how the city needs to ban, restrict or control one thing or another, with no regard for individual rights or economic sense. But last Thursday’s meeting of the council’s Committee on License and Consumer...
A net of 1.25 million more people left Illinois than entered from 1985-2010, according to data from the Internal Revenue Service on the migration of Illinois taxpayers and their dependents. In every single recorded year, more people left Illinois than entered. Recent U.S. Census Bureau estimates, which go through 2012, show that the exodus has...
Illinois’ jobless rate remained stuck at 8.7 percent for the month of February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Illinois remains the only state in the Midwest with a higher jobless rate today than when Gov. Pat Quinn took office. When Quinn took office, the jobless rate was 8 percent. The state gained 6,400...
Taxi-industry lobbyists have been working hard to get Chicago to hobble or ban popular ridesharing services such as UberX and Lyft, but they haven’t gotten very far. The problem: these services are just too popular. Aldermen have been overwhelmed with calls and emails from Chicagoans asking them to leave ridesharing alone. So now the taxi...
In February, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office proposed an ordinance that would force popular ridesharing services such as Uber and Lyft to severely change the way they do business, if not shut down entirely. We pointed out some of the proposal’s many serious problems, and Chicago aldermen reported thousands of people emailing them asking them...
Illinois is in a jobs crisis, now claiming the second-highest jobless rate nationally and the highest jobless rate in the Midwest. Gov. Pat Quinn and his allies are now on the move to make the problem worse for young people and minorities. Quinn should have learned from his own dismal record. Since Quinn took office,...
Illinois’ loss of 27,600 payroll jobs in January was second-worst nationally, according to today’s release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only California, which shed 31,500 payroll positions, fared worse. Texas and Ohio led the nation in adding payroll jobs. Illinois is one of six states with an unemployment rate significantly above the...