Almost all metropolitan areas across Illinois saw an increase in their unemployment rate in July. According to the latest seasonally adjusted unemployment numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, eight of Illinois’ 10 Metropolitan Statistical Areas, or MSAs, saw their unemployment rates increase. The only region to experience a drop was Chicago, while the...

by John Klingner President Barack Obama visited to Galesburg last week to give a speech in which he said he would refocus on jobs and the economy. That’s little comfort for the unemployed workers in cities across Illinois. The economic policies the president wishes to enact at the federal level have been at work for...

Illinois has the nation’s second-worst unemployment rate. At 9.1 percent, it’s 1.5 percentage points higher than the national average of 7.6 percent. The lack of jobs continues to be a major burden to the people of Illinois, at both the state and local level. A year-over-year comparison of Metropolitan Statistical Areas, or MSAs, reveals an uneven...

Caterpillar Inc., one of the dozens of companies to receive special tax breaks after Illinois’ record 2011 income tax hike, recently announced plans to lay off more than 460 employees this June at its plant in Decatur.