Manufacturing weakness driving Illinois unemployment up; dropout and out-migration driving unemployment down.

Illinois’ weak manufacturing recovery from the Great Recession has led to the Land of Lincoln’s having the worst unemployment rate among nearby and neighboring Rust Belt states.

Illinois’ slow economic growth, made worse by out-migration, needs to be addressed in order to tackle the state’s budgetary problems.

Illinois physicians in the workers’ compensation system are allowed to sell “repackaged” pills directly to patients at huge markups, averaging between 60 and 300 percent.

Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan criticizes Gov. Bruce Rauner’s economic reform ideas and offers only growth-killing tax hikes for Illinoisans in need of better jobs and income.

A new study by The Pew Charitable Trusts shows Illinois trails all states but Nevada in personal income growth since the Great Recession, with a growth rate half that of Illinois’ neighbors.

Less than half of Illinois households are defined as middle class.

While neighboring states are making themselves friendlier for farmers, Illinois keeps its unfair death tax in place.