More and more households becoming dependent on food stamps reveals the true impact of Illinois’ sputtering economy.

Illinois is now down 138,200 total payroll jobs in the recession era, the second-worst recovery of any state.

Illinoisans should only be taxed when they spend their money, not when they earn it.

Illinois is last in the U.S. for putting people back to work.

Illinois’ economy needs a real comeback to get the state back to work. To address what is needed for a sustainable recovery, policymakers should look at one of Illinois’ primary pain points: the manufacturing sector. The recession caused Illinois to lose 116,800 manufacturing jobs from January 2008-January 2010. After that, Illinois began a weak manufacturing...

The Illinois unemployment rate fell to 6.6 percent from 6.7 percent in September, according to today’s economic release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of payroll jobs in Illinois increased by 19,300 in September, the sixth-best monthly increase in the last 10 years. Illinois’ workforce grew by 5,800 in September, the first month...

Illinois is ready to boom. That is the single most important fact about Illinois’ jobs climate and economy as a whole. However, Illinoisans have been held back by policy errors that have plagued the state for decades, especially since the Great Recession. Policy errors are causing tremendous pain for Illinoisans, but that pain can be...

From the beginning of the Great Recession in January 2008 through August 2014, Illinois is still down 157,100 payroll jobs, more than any other state in the U.S. Some sectors of Illinois’ economy have recovered completely, while others remain dramatically below pre-recession levels. Manufacturing and construction have had it the worst through the recession era,...

Small businesses and innovators are the lifeblood of any economy, and Illinois needs reform to encourage them to locate in Illinois. Small businesses are responsible for two-thirds of all new jobs created in the last 20 years. The disincentives for entrepreneurs to locate in Illinois are systemic, and thus require systemic solutions. An agenda for...

Denial— a failure to acknowledge an unacceptable truth or emotion or to admit it into your consciousness, used as a defense mechanism. Illinois’ Senate Democrats launched a website called “I Like Illinois.” The explicit purpose of the site, according to their tweets, is to “counter negativity of Illinois Policy Institute.” This purpose is ironic, given...