Metropolitan jobs data show that from September 2015 – September 2016 the greater Chicago area is up approximately 49,000 jobs, while the rest of the state is down 6,000 jobs.
Since the end of the recession, only 5 out of Illinois’ 13 metro areas – Carbondale-Marion, Chicago, Kankakee, Lake County-Kenosha County and Springfield – have recovered all the private-sector jobs lost from the Great Recession.
Airbnb has reported that about 4,800 Chicagoans are Airbnb hosts, and they earn an average of $5,300 per year renting out their homes through the service.
More than 6,000 Illinois manufacturing jobs disappeared in 2015.
IRS data show the average income of taxpayers leaving Illinois surpassed the average income of taxpayers entering the state by $20,000 in 2014, a record loss for Illinois in the wake of the 2011 income-tax hike.
An otherwise ordinary fall day turned joyous on Sept. 24, 2015. Dozens of food-cart street vendors rallied at Chicago City Hall to show support for an ordinance that would legalize the vendors’ trade. Approximately 1,500 food carts – beloved by their communities in Chicago’s predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods – had operated in an underground economy for...
Pepe Balanzar learned to make tamales from his grandmother. Growing up in the restaurant business, she would make one batch for selling and one batch for family. The family batch had more meat, more “masa,” or dough, and more flavor. So when Balanzar opened Chicago’s first food truck, he had to choose a side: Which...
The regulatory cost of doing business in Illinois remains the highest in the Midwest for workers’ compensation, according to the 2016 Oregon Workers’ Compensation Premium Rate Ranking study.[1] Illinois’ out-of-balance workers’ compensation laws contribute to the Land of Lincoln’s loss of industrial investment and blue-collar job opportunities. Illinois manufacturing firms often cite workers’ compensation as...
Illinois Senate Bill 2982 epitomizes the kind of overregulation and burdensome licensing requirement Illinois should overhaul.
Illinois is one of only eight states that do not enforce food-stamp work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents. But reinstating work requirements would benefit Illinois food-stamp enrollees as well as state and local economies.
More than half of the month’s jobs losses occurred in the manufacturing sector.
Illinois’ out-migration of younger workers should concern lawmakers and urge them to pass pro-growth reforms.
Illinois’ 2011 income-tax hike caused out-migration that cost the state high-earning taxpayers. New IRS data show taxpayers who left had an average income of $77,000 per year, compared with taxpayers who entered Illinois, who had an average income of $57,000 per year.
The state’s high-tax burden is not only hurting struggling taxpayers’ pockets, but is also depreciating home values across Illinois.