Illinois: nation’s 2nd-highest unemployment rate for sixth straight month

ix months ago, Illinois overtook California to become the state with the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation, behind only Nevada. It hasn’t budged since. Today’s release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics details yet another month of stalled unemployment numbers for Illinois. The state’s August unemployment rate remained at 9.2 percent – 1.9 percentage...

ix months ago, Illinois overtook California to become the state with the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation, behind only Nevada. It hasn’t budged since.

Today’s release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics details yet another month of stalled unemployment numbers for Illinois. The state’s August unemployment rate remained at 9.2 percent – 1.9 percentage points above the national average, which fell to 7.3 percent in August from 7.4 percent in July.

Compared to its neighbors, Illinois fares even worse. The state’s unemployment rate is now a full 2 percentage points above its neighbors’ average, which fell to 7.2 percent from 7.3 percent one month earlier.

Illinois’ unemployment rate has remained above 9 percent since December of last year.

The number of unemployed Illinoisans also remains high, at 602,000. This is the third month in a row the number of unemployed has remained above 600,000.

But Illinoisans know it’s not just those out of work who are suffering: many breadwinners are stuck working part-time, although they want and need a full-time job.

That’s why BLS tracks several unemployment figures, including the broadest measure of worker unemployment called U-6. The U-6 rate includes not just the unemployed, but also people working part time while seeking full-time work, as well as unemployed people who haven’t looked for work in the past four months but have sought employment in the past year.

Illinois’ most recent U-6 unemployment rate is 16.1 percent, meaning more than 1 million Illinoisans are unemployed or underemployed.

Five years after the end of the Great Recession, Illinois still has an unemployment rate nearly 5 percentage points higher than its pre-recession average and there are 147,000 fewer Illinoisans in the labor force compared to August 2007.

The state is still missing 177,000 nonfarm payroll jobs compared to August 2007.

Six months of the second-highest unemployment rate is no anniversary to be proud of.

The best way for Illinois to drop its unemployment rate and compete with its neighbors is to foster a pro-business environment. Illinois can do that by lowering its corporate income tax rate to encourage business investment,reducing onerous and costly regulations that stifle entrepreneurship and passing labor reforms to make Illinois a more attractive business destination.

Enacting these polices would go a long way toward making Illinois a leader in job creation, rather than the runner-up for the worst unemployment rate in the nation.