Government has plenty of tools at its disposal to fight teen smoking. Arbitrarily banning products based on geography shouldn’t be one of them.
Some sectors of Illinois' economy have recovered completely, while others remain dramatically below pre recession levels.
Illinois is still seven years and 286,000 workers from recovery.
Exactly 900 more Illinoisans can expect to be laid off in coming months, according to notices filed with the state.
Illinois is last in the U.S. for putting people back to work.
Unemployment rates fell for most of Illinois’ metropolitan statistical areas in September, according to a press release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, seven out of 10 Illinois metro areas are not showing any signs of an economic recovery when it comes to putting people back to work. Champaign, Chicago and Springfield are showing...
It’s been two years since Chicago last updated its food-truck regulations to allow vendors to prepare food onboard. This was a significant improvement, but there are still some important changes the city can and should make to better respect food-truck owners’ rights and improve food options for residents across the city. Here are three modest...
Illinois’ “temporary” 2011 tax hike made the state’s slow recovery even worse. The tax hikes hit at the worst possible time – right after household incomes had collapsed during the recession. Since the tax hikes, the monthly growth in the number of people working in Illinois has slowed down by 60 percent, while the monthly...
Illinoisans don’t need bureaucrats playing venture capitalist with their hard-earned money.
More than one in five Illinois households are dependent on food stamps.
More than 500,000 Illinoisans are missing from the calculation of Illinois' unemployment rate.
The unemployment rate is a state’s most closely monitored indicator of economic health. The Illinois unemployment rate rose sharply through the Great Recession, and continues to fluctuate and trend downward as a result of both economic growth and a shrinking workforce. Illinois’ working-age adult population, from which the workforce is drawn, has grown by nearly...
Illinois’ economy needs a real comeback to get the state back to work. To address what is needed for a sustainable recovery, policymakers should look at one of Illinois’ primary pain points: the manufacturing sector. The recession caused Illinois to lose 116,800 manufacturing jobs from January 2008-January 2010. After that, Illinois began a weak manufacturing...
The Illinois unemployment rate fell to 6.6 percent from 6.7 percent in September, according to today’s economic release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of payroll jobs in Illinois increased by 19,300 in September, the sixth-best monthly increase in the last 10 years. Illinois’ workforce grew by 5,800 in September, the first month...