Illinois law gives financial incentives to many injured workers to stay off the job and to doctors to prescribe more medications to workers’ compensation patients.

The August BLS jobs report shows Illinois is down 8,000 manufacturing jobs on the year, giving the state the worst manufacturing job losses in the region, and a summer workforce contraction totaling 100,000 people.

Years of job-killing policies in Illinois have pushed residents out of the state, while nearby Michigan has taken an alternate, pro-growth approach to turn it around.

Illinois stands out in the industrial Midwest for its skewed government-to-manufacturing-jobs ratio.

August IDES report shows 22,000 people dropped out of the workforce, and 4,400 manufacturing jobs were lost.

Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan’s current tax-and-spend policies and protection of special interests stand in contrast to the speaker’s past statements declaring the need for economic growth and opportunity.

Illinois lags the rest of the Midwest in recovering from the recession.

August records summer-high job losses, including 495 in manufacturing.

The manufacturing company plans to reduce operations in Illinois.

More than 1 in 5 Illinois households rely on food stamps to make ends meet.