The nation’s 7 million “jobs gap”

The nation’s unemployment rate remained at 6.3 percent in May, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest unemployment report. But with 217,000 jobs created, the total number of payroll jobs has finally recovered to its pre-recession level. In other words, the nation is finally back to where it was six years ago. While...

The nation’s unemployment rate remained at 6.3 percent in May, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest unemployment report.

But with 217,000 jobs created, the total number of payroll jobs has finally recovered to its pre-recession level.

In other words, the nation is finally back to where it was six years ago.

While that might seem like news to celebrate, there is still a massive “jobs gap” to be made up.

According to the American Enterprise Institute’s James Pethokoukis, the recession has left the country far behind in terms of creating jobs for the 16 million new people of working age who have joined the workforce since December 2007:

“When you factor in population growth … you find the recession has left a remaining shortfall of nearly 7 million jobs or ‘missing workers.’”

Unfortunately, Illinois cannot claim that it has kept pace with the rest of the country. At 7.9 percent, Illinois still has the third-highest unemployment rate in the U.S.

The state, unlike the nation, has yet to recover all the jobs it lost during the Great Recession. In fact, Illinois is one of only eight states with lower payrolls in February 2014 than in January 2008 – having 178,000 fewer payroll jobs today than it did before the recession hit.

With a net loss of 2,300 jobs so far this year, it will be a long time before Illinois reaches its pre-recession employment numbers, let alone begins creating jobs for its new workers.