Insurance premiums cost 20 percent of payroll for concrete construction workers in Illinois.

The state of Illinois has one of the oldest workers’ compensation systems in America, dating to 1911.

US labor report Many analysts are challenging the 0.3 percentage point drop in the nation’s September unemployment rate released this morning by US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS announced the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent from 8.1 percent in August. The unemployment rate, which is now below 8 percent for the first time...

Today there are 5 million fewer people participating in the labor force than when President Obama took office in January 2009. That

The nation’s unemployment rate increased to 7.9 percent in October from 7.8 percent in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If that number is a reflection of the country’s anemic recovery, consider the implications of Illinois’ 8.8 percent unemployment rate in September. There are more than 580,000 Illinoisans formally out of work. And these...

by Ashley Muchow Depression. Great Recession. Trough. We’ve heard it all in reference to the struggling state of the U.S. economy. President Barack Obama has insisted his policy moves and $787 billion-plus spending initiatives staved off a second Great Depression. The National Bureau of Economic Research declared late last month that the recession ended in June of 2009, after less...