Bloomington is the only metro area to recover jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic and statewide mandated shutdowns. Illinois is still missing 200,100 jobs as of January 2020.
Illinois courts’ long history of being friendly to plaintiffs and personal injury attorneys showed up again in a reform group’s annual ranking. Cook County, St. Clair County and Madison County together moved up in the rankings of “judicial hellholes.”
Chicago leaders are using another gas tax hike to help fill a budget hole driven by pensions. Total gas taxes and fees are closing in on $1 per gallon.
The contractor who revamped Illinois’ unemployment system to handle self-employed workers is being sued. One of the nearly 32,500 applicants who had private information exposed said it was used to access her bank account.
State lawmakers last summer doubled Illinois’ gas tax to help pay for capital projects. Each year the gas tax automatically rises, shielding lawmakers from responsibility for hikes.
Despite Gov. J.B. Pritzker touting growth in “every major region,” Illinois shed jobs in three metropolitan areas and lagged the national average in seven more.