Though unemployment rates fell in August for Illinois’ major metropolitan areas, 19,000 workers dropped out of the workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Because of these dropouts, the workforce shrank in every metropolitan statistical area, or MSA, except Champaign-Urbana. Workforce dropouts drive down the unemployment rate because unemployed workers who leave the workforce...

The unemployment rate fell in all of Illinois’ metropolitan statistical areas in July, according to a press release from the Illinois Department of Employment Security. In fact, unemployment rates have fallen in all metro areas for four consecutive months, which seems like welcome news. But these numbers are only encouraging at face value. As is...

Illinois needs to pass a law to create space for this financial innovation, allowing families to invest in local businesses through crowdfunding.

Illinoisans cross the border to become Hoosiers at a stunning rate. Illinois had a net loss of 4,100 people and $76 million of annual income to Indiana in 2010 alone, the most recent year of Internal Revenue Service data. That’s because for every three people who left Indiana for Illinois, four left Illinois for Indiana. Illinois’ losses to Indiana are...

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce ranked the regulatory environment in 10 major U.S. cities, and the results aren’t pretty for Chicago. One writer described starting a professional services business in Chicago as a “dystopian nightmare.” Professional and business services make up 780,000 payroll jobs in the Chicago metropolitan area, a major part of current employment...