Metropolitan jobs data shows that from October 2015 – October 2016 the greater Chicago area is up +33,500 jobs while the rest of the state is down -2,700 jobs. Measured since before the Great Recession, from October 2007 – October 2016, the greater Chicago area is up 110,100 jobs while the rest of the state is down -42,700 jobs.

Since the beginning of 2015, Illinois has lost 14,100 manufacturing jobs.

New IDES data show that Illinois’ overall jobs growth was weak for October. While the greater Chicago area had tepid jobs growth over the year, the rest of the state lost jobs.

Metropolitan jobs data show that from September 2015 – September 2016 the greater Chicago area is up approximately 49,000 jobs, while the rest of the state is down 6,000 jobs.

Since the end of the recession, only 5 out of Illinois’ 13 metro areas – Carbondale-Marion, Chicago, Kankakee, Lake County-Kenosha County and Springfield – have recovered all the private-sector jobs lost from the Great Recession.

Illinois is one of only eight states that do not enforce food-stamp work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents. But reinstating work requirements would benefit Illinois food-stamp enrollees as well as state and local economies.

More than half of the month’s jobs losses occurred in the manufacturing sector.

Continued jobs losses in manufacturing underscore the need to reform the state’s onerous tax and regulatory policies.

Vonco is the second major packaging manufacturer to leave Illinois in less than two weeks.

Altria announces plant closures in Illinois and Pennsylvania.