Ugaste blasts Illinois’ rising unemployment rate

[August 23, 2024]  By Glenn Minnis | The Center Square contributor

(The Center Square) – With Illinois already home to the second-worst unemployment rate in the country, Republican state Rep. Dan Ugaste is warning the worse may still be yet to come.

New U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows the state’s unemployment rate now stands at 5.2%, or nearly a full percentage point above the national average of 4.3%, as at least 341,630 residents were reported to be looking for work over that time.

“For 20 to 25 years, we've been poorly governed,” Ugaste told The Center Square. “We have put too much burden on business to make it. We have the highest business taxes of anywhere in the nation; we are over-regulated. We've now put in place an energy policy that's going to drive energy prices up exponentially. Basically, we've taken the state that's well situated and was an economic leader and turned it into an under-performer. We just continuously shoot ourselves in the foot by regulating and passing laws that are anti-business, actually anti-growth.”

During the month of July, the state added just 37,300 jobs, with government jobs accounting for the highest growth rates at 6.25%. The professional and business sector saw the largest net decline at nearly 3%.

Illinois also ranked dead last in job growth among neighboring states at 0.61, and since the pandemic the state ranks 45th in the country in job recovery with just a 0.25% overall increase

State Rep. Dan Ugaste, R-Geneva, during a news conference in Springfield, Illinois
Greg Bishop / The Center Square

“We are absolutely still on the wrong path,” Ugaste said. “Until we start electing many more Republicans and not Democrats, we're going to have this problem. Democratic leadership isn't interested in changing anything. We hire Moody's to do an economic analysis of our state economy and they published a report for fiscal year 2024 and basically it told us outright that we are lagging the rest of the nation in economic growth and the primary reason is over-taxation.”

Over each of the past 10 years, Illinois has also lost population with residents citing high taxes as the No. 1 reason to leave the state.

Ugaste argues none of it has to be.

“The bills are filed to make Illinois a much better state,” he said. “The way their leadership in the General Assembly runs things, they just won't allow those bills to be considered. It's going to mean higher and higher taxes for everybody. We'll continue to shrink in population as a state and we'll continue to shrink in relevance until this place has nothing to offer anyone.”

Over each of the last 10 years, Illinois has also lost population with residents citing high taxes as the No. 1 reason to leave the state.