For a second month in a row, Illinois holds the unenviable position of leading the nation in negative jobs data. This month, the bad news is in the number of unemployed Illinoisans.  Data released Sept. 15 by the Bureau Labor of Statistics showed that more people became unemployed last month in Illinois than in any other state in the nation. More than 25,000 additional people were counted as unemployed, bringing the grand total of unemployed Illinoisans to 652,977.

This increase is reflected in a 0.4 percent jump in the Illinois unemployment rate. That rate increased in August for the fourth straight month and is now at 9.9 percent –  almost a full percent higher than the national rate of 9.1 percent.

This negative unemployment report comes on the heels of dismal July numbers from the bureau; Illinois payrolls were down by nearly 25,000 during the month of July, the worst in the nation.

The Institute has been following closely the bureau’s four key jobs numbers since the start of the year (see graphics below), in concern for what this year’s record tax and spending increases are doing to the job recovery that Illinois was experiencing in 2010. And while one month’s numbers do not make a trend, this year Illinois’s labor markets have all begun trending downward.

The bad employment numbers come as President Obama pushes another stimulus package to tackle the job crisis facing the nation. The President proposes to spend an additional $450 billion of taxpayer dollars to prop up the market.

But as an Illinoisan, the President should know that those tax, spend and borrow policies have failed Illinois for the past decade. Runaway spending, borrowing, and record deficits, spent on countless programs and capital projects, have done nothing to create a sustainable recovery in Illinois. Rather, they have left the state with the least-funded pension system in the nation, growing debt, and billions in unpaid bills. Not surprisingly, Illinois has the worst credit rating in the nation.

To make matters worse, in 2011 Illinois passed a record tax increase to “resolve” its problems. The average household, in the depths of the crisis facing the state, now has to pay the state an additional $1,500 in taxes per year. It’s no wonder that the labor market is uncertain and that jobs are now more scarce. Illinois’s labor force has now shrunk to levels not seen since 2009.

It’s time to stop government-centric programs and give the free markets a chance. Illinois’s labor market is in trouble – pick your chart.