Manufacturers are struggling with unfavorable global conditions, and Illinois’ anti-growth policies are only hurting the state’s industrial sector more.
Illinois state workers can opt out of union membership to become fair share payers, but reforms such as Right to Work and Worker’s Choice would promote greater worker freedom and benefit the state.
National Employee Freedom Week spotlights the ability of all Illinois workers – including state employees – to opt out of unions, and outlines the reforms needed to ensure true worker freedom.
In the majority of Illinois’ large cities, the number of people moving to another part of the country is greater than the combined gains from more births than deaths and international immigration.
Illinois gained 14,700 payroll jobs on net in March, and compared relatively well with other states in the region for the month, trailing only Ohio in monthly jobs growth. Despite this growth, however, the unemployment rate increased to 6.5 percent. The state also lost 3,100 manufacturing jobs on net.
A new poll conducted by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute in February 2016 reveals that a clear majority of voters – including 55 percent of Democrats and 51 percent of union members – support or lean toward supporting Right-to-Work laws.
Though neighboring and Great Lakes states added a combined 200 factory jobs per workday on net in 2015, an average of 56 Illinois manufacturing workers, on net, received pink slips each workday during the same time.
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 Education Freedom Tax Credit, also known as the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, will give Illinois students access to donor money if the state opts into the program.