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New U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows Illinois’
unemployment rate crept up to 5.3% in August, which ranks as the
second highest in the country and the highest of all neighboring
states.
“We need to address policies that create jobs, that encourage
businesses and that understand there's economic impact on every
policy out there,” Wilcox told The Center Square. “Right now,
the policies that are being pushed in Springfield and the
policies that have been pushed in DC for the last four years,
they're not friendly to business. We need an administration in
the General Assembly that's legitimately business minded.”
During the month of August, data shows that 343,000 residents
were left looking for work as the state’s growing jobless list
easily topped the national average of 4.2%. Over the last year,
the state has seen job growth of 36,300 positions, ranking 44th
among all states for non-farm job growth at 0.59%, or nearly a
full-point behind the national average growth of 1.51%.
“The newspaper only talks about those large businesses that
announce layoffs of 200 like Amazon's Fulfillment Center,”
Wilcox said. “What they don't talk about are the 20 or 30 or 100
small businesses that have reduced staff. Small businesses are
the workforce of America and when they start hurting because of
policy impacts to their pocketbook, it means people are out of
work.”
With the state seeing its largest job growth in the area of
state government, Wilcox worries what kind of message the
overall sputtering numbers send to people.
“What happens to individuals who are struggling that have no
hope?” he said. “We see it in Chicago every day, shortly to
follow the high unemployment will be higher crime rates. We need
to address policies that create jobs.”
Since the pandemic, the job recovery rate in Illinois ranks 46th
in the country, with only 13,500 more jobs than were available
in early 2020. During that time, the state has lost such
businesses as Caterpillar, Boeing and Citadel and in 2023, some
32,826 residents decided to leave the state, marking the 10th
straight year of net population decline. |
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