Illinois’ metropolitan statistical areas are a long way from jobs recovery, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The release shows that Danville, Decatur and Rockford are still plagued with double-digit joblessness. All 10 of Illinois’ metro areas have jobless rates above the national average. Despite economic improvement and jobless rates falling nationally,...
On May 14, one day before the official start of Chicago Craft Beer Week, the Illinois Liquor Control Commission, or ILCC, proposed a harsh new cap on the amount of beer Illinois’ brew pubs would be allowed to sell. Under the proposed rules, a brew pub would not be allowed to sell more than 50,000...
After health department officials shut down the cupcake business of a little girl from Troy, Ill., lawmakers tried to craft a new set of rules for “kitchen businesses.” But one Illinois senator had added so many harmful requirements into the bill that would have crippled the home kitchen industry – fortunately, his version of the bill...
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce ranked the regulatory environment in 10 major U.S. cities, and the results aren’t pretty for Chicago. One writer described starting a professional services business in Chicago as a “dystopian nightmare.” Professional and business services make up 780,000 payroll jobs in the Chicago metropolitan area, a major part of current employment...
Burke’s proposal to end the process of reissuing city carriage licenses starting in 2015 came seemingly out of the blue.
Gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner publicly opposes the tax-hike plan championed by Gov. Pat Quinn and House Speaker Mike Madigan. Rauner claimed that raising income taxes again in 2015 will cause more businesses and people to flee the state. Madigan fired back at Rauner with one of the most poorly-conceived statements of this campaign season. Madigan...
Policymakers in Illinois spent this spring debating whether the state should adopt a progressive tax scheme. At one point, there were as many as seven different tax structures being considered in Illinois. Supporters of the progressive tax fought for an amendment to the Illinois Constitution to allow such a change. Their efforts were rejected, and,...
Drivers and supporters of rideshare company Lyft rallied earlier this week on Chicago’s Federal Plaza to urge community members to oppose House Bill 4075, which would restrict ridesharing at the state level. The Illinois Senate approved the bill this week. Thanks in part to the efforts of Illinois Policy Action, the most anti-competitive aspects of...
Illinois lost 7,800 private-sector jobs in April, and the state jobless rate fell to 7.9 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Illinois remains the worst in the Midwest and third-worst nationally for joblessness. Illinois’ private-sector jobs loss came against a gain of 1,000 government jobs, leaving the state with a net loss of...
Link to tweet. If you are an employer or are in charge of human resources for your organization, you might soon be on the receiving end of the U.S. Department of Labor’s social media campaign to increase the minimum wage. Unlike the job-creators in the economy, federal bureaucrats don’t seem to fully-grasp how employers determine...
For nearly 35 years, Larry Ortega has run his popular horse-drawn carriage business, Chicago Horse and Carriage Ltd. And for all the time he has been in business, Ortega and his staff have operated without a major incident, and demand continues to boom. But an ordinance proposed by Chicago Alderman Ed Burke would put an...
Illinois’ 2011 income tax hike helped put the brakes on the state’s private-sector jobs recovery. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Illinois’ monthly job creation has slowed down since the 2011 tax hike. Meanwhile, the rest of the country has accelerated its jobs growth. The Great Recession began in January 2008, and...
CEOs of major U.S. corporations went on record in Chief Executive Magazine’s “2014 Best and Worst States for Business.” Business leaders pulled no punches in their description of Illinois, going so far as to compare doing business in Illinois to doing business in a third-world country. The publication ranked Illinois at the bottom of the...
Illinois is bracing to lose another 776 jobs in the next few months. OfficeMax Inc. reported that it will lay off 137 workers in Ottawa. Naperville-based OfficeMax Inc. and Office Depot Inc., based in Boca Raton, Fla., merged in late 2013, and the company chose to locate its headquarters in Florida – not Illinois. Last...