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New data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and analyzed by
Illinois Policy Institute also shows that since Pritzker took office
in 2019, seven of the state’s major job sectors have actually shed
jobs.
While neighboring states Iowa, Missouri, Indiana and Kentucky all
grew over the last four years, researchers found that Illinois’
-0.03% total nonfarm job performance was only slightly better than
total losses in Wisconsin (0.07%) and Michigan (0.81%).
On the construction and financial activities front, Illinois
finished last in the region and the state’s -4.63 decline in the
leisure and hospitality sector and -2.83% decline in manufacturing
only topped Michigan’s average combined loss of nearly five percent
in both sectors.
Overall, the state’s manufacturing sector ranked 43rd in the
country, while the financial activities and leisure and hospitality
industries were pegged at 42nd and 40th, respectively. Over the
governor’s first four years, the only industries in the state
finishing near the top half in the country were education and health
at 26th, government at 28th and mining at 29th.
Across the country, while the national economy fully regained all
its pandemic-era job losses nearly a year ago and has since added
almost 3 million more, Illinois continues to have about 40,000 fewer
jobs than pre-pandemic, at least partly accounting for the state’s
record-setting 104,437 population loss in 2022.
As the pandemic took hold, Illinois was among the first states in
the Midwest to enact emergency orders and lockdown measures, with
Pritzker having now issued at least 40 such measures, leaving the
state as only one of six to still be classifying the pandemic as an
emergency.
A recent report by Moody’s Investors Service concluded that the
state is now among the least prepared for a moderate recession, with
enough reserves to last only about two weeks should such a crisis
unfold.
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