Illinois only added 3,600 jobs in October, a drastic drop in job growth coming amid persistent inflation and rising recession fears. Unemployment led the nation.
Small Business Saturday offers a reason to be extra thankful: businesses with fewer than 20 employees were the only ones to grow payrolls since COVID-19 hit.
Illinois added 14,900 jobs in September, but its unemployment rate was the highest in the nation. Inflation and growing recession fears could hit the state harder than most.
Illinois will contribute $450 million to the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. With $1.4 billion in debt remaining, Illinois businesses are on the hook if lawmakers don’t meet the Nov. 10 deadline.
Decades-high inflation means local governments can easily raise Illinoisans’ property taxes by 5% during the next year. That makes it an especially bad time to compound the property tax hike with Amendment 1.
In a unanimous decision, the Illinois Supreme Court denied a lawsuit by two former state senators seeking back pay. The senators bragged about voting against the raises, then decided they deserved them after leaving office.
Illinois’ tax code stands in the way of the state’s economic competitiveness. The combination of high tax burdens and a poor tax structure contributes to the loss of jobs and investment to other states. From a place of former economic dominance, Illinois now ranks 45th in gross state product (GSP) growth over the past decade...