 There are 300,000 fewer Illinoisans working today than in 2008 when the Great
Recession began, says data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While 25 states
have fully recovered their losses from the recession, Illinois remains the
furthest away from full recovery than any state in the country.
Since the technical end of the recession in 2009, Illinois has experienced some
of the worst employment recoveries and economic growth rates in the country, the
BLS numbers indicate, and the jobs lost from 2008-2009 won’t be fully gained
back until 2021, 12 years after the recession ended.
To explain the slow growth, Vice President and COO of the Illinois Manufactures
Association, IMA, Mark Denzler says the state has, over the course of several
years, created an unfriendly business climate that stifles progress. IMA is a
business and manufacturing industry advocacy group.
“Our state faces a multi-billion budget deficit and employers are uncertain
about if they’ll be hit with higher taxes and regulations,” Denzler said. “That
uncertainty kills growth.”
Denzler also said the November ballot referendum regarding a tax on Illinois’
highest earners could be damaging to growth as well.
“If legislation comes of the millionaires’ tax, it will definitely harm
businesses,” he said, noting that business owners have to make decisions based
on various factors including the cost of labor, production, and what percentage
of profit goes to the government in the form of taxes.
Denzler said that taking more money away from high earners – the kind of people
who generally start and run businesses – affects business growth because many
put their own money into new businesses, or existing business expansion.
“These policies don’t just exist in a vacuum” he said. “They have ripple effects
and consequences.”
Brent Hickman is an assistant professor of economics at the University of
Chicago and says many factors affect Illinois’ slow growth rate.
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 “There’s never just one or even a couple reasons why some states
perform more poorly than others,” Hickman said. “And it’s not like
politicians are sitting around trying to come up with ways to make
things worse. It’s just hard to come to consensus on what makes them
better.”
Hickman also said that while Illinois has struggled, there are signs
of improvement.
“The unemployment rate is dropping,” he said. “That much is true.
I think we’re on the right path. It’s just going to take some time.”
The slow recovery numbers are coupled with news this week from eight
Illinois companies accounting employee layoffs totaling more than
600 workers in the next few months.
The companies include Microsoft, Nokia, Jim’s Formal Wear, Anchor
Coupling, Inc. and Ball Metal Beverage Packaging.
State Sen. and U.S. senatorial candidate Jim Oberweis, R-Sugar
Grove, blames the slow recovery on poor business policies that make
Illinois an unwise place to expand.
“High taxes, a burdensome regulatory code and incredibly high
(workers) comp rates just kill business growth in Illinois,” the
senator said. “There isn’t some big secret to success. Right now
there’s just too many restrictions on starting a business or growing
an existing one. We’ve made it very difficult for people to find
good work in our state and that’s a shame.”
The data suggests that Illinois’ slow recovery hasn’t been a
consistent pattern, but that employment growth was slowed by more
than 60 percent directly after the 2011 income take increase.
During the Great Recession, approximately 500,000 Illinoisans lost
work. In the five years since it ended, only 200,000 have found jobs
again.
[This
article courtesy of
Watchdog.]
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