Had Illinois managed the recession and recovery on par with the rest of the U.S., there would be an additional 300,000 Illinoisans working today, and an additional 220,000 payroll jobs.

Over the last 15 years, Illinois has lost a net of 282,827 people and more than $14 billion in annual income to zero-income-tax states.

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

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

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...

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...

There’s no right more basic than the right to earn a living to support yourself and your family. And for decades, that’s what street vendors have been trying to do. From elote-cart owners in Little Village to ice-cream carts along North Avenue Beach, entrepreneurs – who are often recent immigrants – have supported themselves by...

Illinois is dead last of all 50 states in recovering from the Great Recession – and two economic surveys prepared each month by the Illinois Department of Employment Security, or IDES, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics prove it. The BLS and IDES surveys track employment and jobs growth in Illinois: both household surveys...