Workers’ compensation costs are killing Illinois steel.

Illinois still ranks last in the country for putting people back to work over the Great Recession era.

Illinois’ recent economic history is grim, but there is a beacon of light appearing at the end of the tunnel.

Establishment +295K jobs, household +96K employment, labor force -178K

The governor’s agenda should be cause for optimism across the state: competitiveness, not cronyism, is the right path forward to spark an Illinois comeback.

Illinois is home to a number of policies that reduce the opportunities of minorities, especially men. Forced unionism is one of them.

Since the January 2011 tax hikes, Illinois’ recovery slowed down, the rest of the Midwest sped up and the rest of the U.S. significantly accelerated. The Great Lakes states performed in lockstep with how well they fostered the free-enterprise system.

The two months since the election have been the Land of Lincoln’s best stretch of employment growth in the post-recession era. But the state’s sudden job-creation steam will run out without a healthy fuel of economic-reform policies.

An encouraging December helped pull the Land of Lincoln out of last place in the Midwest for 2014 jobs growth.

There are now 1.06 million more Americans working than when the recession began. In comparison, there are 232,000 fewer Illinoisans working over the same time period, the second-largest employment gap in the U.S.