From the first quarter of 2001 until the second quarter of 2015, business establishment growth has been 34 percent while jobs growth has been only 1 percent.
Unlike Illinois, Pennsylvania has actually recovered the number of jobs it lost during the Great Recession, and now has 40,000 more jobs than it had at its pre-recession peak. Illinois, on the other hand, still has 90,000 fewer jobs than it had before the recession, the worst jobs recovery in the U.S.
Illinois lost 3,000 jobs on net in 2015, while other neighboring and Great Lakes manufacturing states all gained tens of thousands of jobs on net for the year.
The state unemployment rate jumped to 5.9 percent from 5.7 percent, driven by an increase of 18,300 Illinoisans who are unemployed. Illinois also has 178,000 fewer people working compared to before the Great Recession.
Chicago’s $1.15 billion projected budget gap is the latest in a decades-long string of structural deficits. Making Chicago’s high taxes worse is not the solution.