by Kristina Rasmussen Add this to Illinois’s debt tab. According to the State Journal-Register: Illinois has borrowed more than $2.2 billion from the federal government since July 2009 to pay unemployment benefits. Unemployment benefits are funded through withholding taxes on employers; raising those taxes in a fragile economy is a non starter.
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson At the end of July, the White House’s Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board claimed more than 750,000 jobs were funded by the economic stimulus package last quarter. This estimate was the highest total reported so far, and some saw this as “encouraging news.” But Veronique de Rugy, a senior research fellow at...
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson On Wednesday, Alderman Scott Waguespack introduced an ordinance that would allow mobile food trucks to prepare food on-site. The existing food trucks in the city are only allowed to sell food that is prepared and packaged beforehand. The Chicago Sun-Times reports: “If we have all of our bases covered in terms of health...
by Brian Costin There is a bit of good news from Governor Quinn’s office making the papers today. Quinn recently signed into law a pro-enterprise bill in regards to reducing the licensing requirements on hair braiders. Back in March, the Institute’s Executive Vice President, Kristina Rasmussen,testified on the principles behind the HB 5783 bill sponsored by Rep. William Burns...
by Kate Piercy Last year, the White House told us the stimulus bill would cut unemployment, estimating it would be down to 7.5 percent today. As Dan Mitchell writes in today’s New York Post, “something obviously went wrong.” Today we’re at 9.5 percent unemployment. What happened? Part of the problem, according to Mitchell, was the faith in...
by Heather Wilhelm Over at The Atlantic’s blog, Derek Thompson posts “The Scariest Unemployment Graphic I’ve Seen Yet”: “The median duration of unemployment is higher today than any time in the last 50 years,” he writes. “That’s an understatement. It is more than twice as high today than any time in the last 50 years.” So what does...
by Ashley Muchow CNBC recently came out with their 2010 ranking of America’s Top States for Business. This year, the Lone Star State earned its title as America’s foremost state for business. Illinois managed to remain in the bottom half, dropping from #25 last year to #30. CBNC calculates the rankings based on ten categories reflective of the strain or...
Ashley Muchow Amid the financial turmoil that has inflicted most every world region in the past decade, much attention has been given to the timeless question of whether free markets work. Ultimately, are we better off in a free market economy or is this just an erroneous belief whose figureheads undeservedly became household names? Pew...
by Richard Lorenc, Guest Blogger We’ve been hearing lots about how giving money to unemployed folks creates jobs (or not) over the past few days. But how much, exactly, do these benefits cost? While we won’t have figures from 2010 for a while longer, the Labor Department says American taxpayers spent $76.8 billion in unemployment...
by Ashley Muchow Considering the current financial woes affecting Illinois’s economy, coming to you with more bleak news isn’t fun. Onward. Congress has before it the Financial Reform Bill; a reform bill intended to overhaul the financial system as we know it. But before you begin thanking Washington for coming to the rescue; for protecting...
Recently, a number of Illinois state government employees received pay raises in the midst of an economic recession and ongoing budget crisis. Was this an isolated incident? No, it’s a trend. The chart above was constructed using data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and it shows the compensation of public and private employees indexed against the first...
The Problem Illinois’s minimum wage, already high at $8.00 an hour, is set to increase by another 25 cents on July 1, 2010. This ill-timed hike in the minimum wage will hurt low-skilled workers and the small business owners who want to employ them. With each of Illinois’s neighboring states having a lower minimum wage,...
by Brian Costin Private sector employment fell during the 2000’s and was 3 percent lower in 2010 than it was in 2000. Public sector had no such difficulties. This graph originally posted on the Cato @ Liberty blog shows how public sector employees have show strong growth over the last decade, especially on the state & local level....
by Kristina Rasmussen Governor Pat Quinn fancies himself the “jobs governor.” Let’s see if the numbers hold up. From the Bureau of Labor Statistics: Quinn’s first month in office: February 2009 February 2009 employment: 6,035,873 Illinoisans February 2009 unemployment rate: 8.7 percent Quinn “jobs governor” claim: June 2010 April 2010 employment (latest available): 5,943,140 Illinoisans April 2010...