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.

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.

More than 6,000 Illinois manufacturing jobs disappeared in 2015.

The regulatory cost of doing business in Illinois remains the highest in the Midwest for workers’ compensation, according to the 2016 Oregon Workers’ Compensation Premium Rate Ranking study.[1] Illinois’ out-of-balance workers’ compensation laws contribute to the Land of Lincoln’s loss of industrial investment and blue-collar job opportunities. Illinois manufacturing firms often cite workers’ compensation as...

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

New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show Illinois’ professional and business services sector has fared better than the state’s manufacturing industry, which recorded 800 job losses in September.

The divergence between professional and blue-collar work continued in September, and a shrinking workforce coincided with steady seasonal out-migration.

New poll indicates that younger workers want to flee the state the most, and Illinois’ high-tax, anti-growth policies are encouraging them to do so.

Nearly half of respondents said they would like to leave the state, including almost two-thirds of millennials.