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* I gave the Illinois Department of Employment Security a bit of a tough time the other day for its rose colored outlook on its unemployment rate press releases. This one is far more straight-forward…
Seven of 12 Metro Areas See Increase in March Local Unemployment
4/25/2013
Chicago, Rockford, Kankakee Lead March Job Growth
CHICAGO - March local unemployment rates increased in seven of 12 metro areas, decreased in four, and were unchanged in one compared to last year, according to preliminary data released today by the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES). Not seasonally adjusted data compares March 2013 to March 2012.
The largest increases were in: Decatur MSA (+1.4 points to 11.8 percent), Danville MSA (+1.1 point to 10.8 percent), and Peoria MSA (+0.9 point to 8.9 percent). The Chicago-Joliet-Naperville Metropolitan Division was up +0.5 point to 9.5 percent. The largest decreases were Metro East (-0.9 point to 8.9 percent) and Quad Cities (-0.5 point to 7.2 percent).
Not good news, and not sugar-coated.
* The chart…
Oy.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 10:40 am
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Some portion of the increased unemployment is due to cutbacks in the public sector. School districts, for instance, facing declining state aid, have laid over thousands of teachers.
Our friends on the Right want to blame Democrats for higher unemployment without recognizing that cutbacks in government spending Republicans support (unless it’s a facility in their district)undeniably contribute to the job loss.
Comment by reformer Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 10:48 am
It’s a good thing IDES didn’t just go through a layoff that shook up a lot of the agency or close a whole bunch of downstate offices.
Comment by Tangerine Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 10:56 am
The public sector has been shedding jobs for a couple of years now.
Comment by wordslinger Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 11:05 am
Good point reformer, those .gov layoffs hurt in the real world too.
Worth noting is the Chicago area actually gained 46k jobs over the last year, and increase of 1.2%. This leads me to believe that at least some if the uptick in unemployment numbers is people trying to return to the workforce.
Comment by iThink Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 11:07 am
===increase of 1.2%===
That is beyond pathetic. Not a good sign at all, in any possible way.
Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 11:10 am
When I was a kid, a lot of guys quit school at 16, lied about their age and got jobs in factories and warehouses. This video is 45 min. but it clearly shows today and what the future will be.
http://youtu.be/pnfhso2noqY
Comment by Anon. Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 11:34 am
Illinois is a pariah now in the manufacturing, professional services, and much of the high tech industries. Healthcare and higher ed seem to be stable, but that could change.
SOMEONE in Springfield has to show some real leadership in getting the public pension burden down to sustainable levels, reform workman’s comp, level the playing field between businesses and unions in labor relations, get meaningful tort and liability reform, and reform the excessive entitlement mindset.
Anyone coming up with a believable, trustworthy plan for that will certainly have my vote.
As long as trial lawyers, the “entitlement” class, unions and union contractors are running the Dem party and the state, however, this cascading failure will continue until things are so desperate good people can be empowered in politics here.
Probably won’t be in my or my kids lifetimes, though!
Comment by Palos Park Bob Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 11:35 am
It’ll be interesting to see what our various gubernatorial candidates-to-be say they are going to do about it. Because, unless they plan a massive direct public hiring program (but where to get the money?)there probably isn’t much. Look at the enormous efforts the feds have put into improving the overall national economy and it’s still missing predictions. Leaving aside structural changes(like improved technology and automation and the effects of globalization) there probably isn’t much politicians can realistically do but ride it out like the rest of us. The overall national economy is improving, though, if slowly. I believe Illinois’ will as well.
Comment by cassandra Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 11:38 am
BTW, in Illinois we’re produciing some of the best technical and business talent in the world ona an annual basis. Companies have realized they don’t have to come here to access that talent. It’s more than willing to take off for Texas, Florida, the Carolinas, Silicon Valley and Seattle.
This decline solidly rests on the people we’ve continually elected, and those of us who KEEP ON electing them!
That goes for both parties….
Comment by Palos Park Bob Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 11:39 am
Cassandra, they’ve done little in DC to promote a growth policy. It’s all about low value government priming, and it doesn’t work, and it has NEVER worked.
The private sector needs to lead this recovery, but Obama and friends have done the politcal equivalent of loading a bag of rocks on a drowning man they’re claiming to help.
There’s some simple things that would jump start this economy. especially in manufacturing. One is to allow all normally depreciable business expenditures to be written off on taxes the year the expense is made.
This would build to an investment boom that would do wonders for the economy.
Comment by Palos Park Bob Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 11:45 am
Perhaps. But whenever I hear somebody talk about using tax policy to improve the economy, I want to hear the opposing arguments. Mainly, because I think there are limits to what you can do to spur economic growth by manipulating tax policy. Seems like we do too much of that already and it hasn’t been wildly successful.
Comment by cassandra Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 12:00 pm
Just for something to think about, the three areas of the state showing decreases are all bordering other states.
Just making note….
Here’s what we should be concentrating on….
http://news.illinois.edu/news/13/0422nanowires_XiulingLi.html
The first line says it all:
“The self-assembled wires have a core of one composition and an outer layer of another, a desired trait for many advanced electronics applications.”
This state needs to get these UofI guys a minimum of $20 mil like yesterday and tell them to get rocking and rolling. Potential breakthroughs like this don’t happen every day. If the Republicans are halfway smart, they’ll be all over this one.
Anybody remember Mosaic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_%28web_browser%29)
Opportunity knocks (again)….
Comment by Judgment Day Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 12:05 pm
–Not a good sign at all, in any possible way. –
Didn’t say that it was, just making an observation. Though upon further thought, I suppose it’s nice to be one of the 46k that is now employed.
Something needs to be done to turn the ship around.
Comment by iThink Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 12:10 pm
–Anybody remember Mosaic–
I’ve done work over the years for Alex Zoghlin, who was on the Mosaic Project along with Marc Andreassen.
Zoghlin went on to found one of the first commerce website builders, Neoglyphics, turning an empty cash register factory in Bucktown to a beehive of techies creating sites for the Fortune 500. Later, he built Orbitz, then HLT (real estate). Last I heard, he’s the chief tech whiz kid for Hyatt Corp. downtown.
Leveraging university resources like that is a lot more productive than corporate handouts.
Comment by wordslinger Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 12:31 pm
@Anon…
It’s already a tough job market.
Quitting school at 16 to go to work certainly doesn’t make things any better.
MORE education helps your odds.
Dropping out @ 16 is a ticket to a lifetime of poverty.
Comment by BleugrassBoy Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 12:35 pm
No it’s not just the decrees in public spending that is sinking this titanic. We are way above the national average and way above the surrounding states. Quinn, madigan,Cullerton Rahm should all take a bow and acknowledge the leadership they provide is garbage.
Comment by Fed up Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 12:45 pm
Duh. This is what happens when you increase the state income tax 66% and have massive unfunded pension liabilities. And we just awarded Illinois Democrats supermajorities in both chambers of the General Assembly? I would just say folks get the representation they deserve, except I live in Illinois also . . . .
Comment by Captain Obvious Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 12:45 pm
Word:
This time around, it’s all in the Nanowire, Graphene, and Material Sciences areas. And we here in IL can be absolutely golden for this type of ultra high tech, but we’ve got to MOVE - and do it YESTERDAY.
Most people don’t realize that there looks to be a substantial undeveloped reserve of rare earth metals located in, or all places, central Missouri. One of the critical elements to creating a Material Sciences hub.
We don’t need to re-create CA or TX - we need to go into areas where they are not. Like, advanced Material Sciences.
Comment by Judgment Day Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 12:50 pm
Their slants over the past few months really deprived Decatur of much needed attention to the employment situation there. Of course, one could fairly argue the numbers were there and the press just regurgitated the spin.
Regardless, glad they are playing it straight and hope it lasts.
Comment by Dirty Red Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 2:22 pm
Now I know why my State Senator Andy Manar want to get rid of DCEO.
Comment by Springfield Red Voter Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 2:23 pm
U-6 Unemployment rose from 16% to 16.1% in the first Q for Illinois.
Caterpillar is in the process of laying off 400. US Cellular 600 and then there’s the Whiting IN. BP project that once employed 10,000 workers coming to an end.
As a result Meade Elec. has already filed a WARN notice for about 569 workers and we wonder how many more Illinois residents that work in IN. will be affected but not counted in the IDES stats!
The Atlantic reports recently : 53% of Recent College Grads Are Jobless or Underemployed
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/04/53-of-recent-college-grads-are-jobless-or-underemployed-how/256237/
There’s already 1.8 million unemployed workers holding four year degrees and “global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. says this year’s crop of 1.8 million bachelor’s degree recipients will be able to take advantage of the 36 consecutive months of private-sector employment growth that has occurred since the jobs recovery began in earnest in March 2010.
“Job creation has been slow, but it has been steady. Over the past 14 months, private payrolls have grown by an average of 190,000 new workers per month..”
http://www.collegerecruiter.com/blog/2013/03/27/1-8-million-2013-four-year-college-grads-entering-improving-job-market/
Hahaha. yeah woo-hoo “take advantage” of that!
So how ya like that spin?
Do the math and tell the class how long it will take to put 1.8 million grads to work when private payrolls are only growing at 190,000 per month and 53% of last years grads are still hoping to cash in on the so-called American dream.
The spin about “growth” is sickening in the Challenger piece attempting to build false hope to the masses.
Nevertheless is continues..
“In January, there were 47 metropolitan areas with unemployment rates under six percent. There were another 51 with a jobless rate between 6.0 percent and 7.0 percent, still below the national average of 7.7 percent. These are definitely places, soon-to-be graduates should be
considering when casting their job-search nets.”
Yeah..so guess what?
That’s not Chicago and it’s not Illinois they should be looking at if there is ANY hope at all.
Comment by anon Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 2:35 pm
Yeah with Chicago creating jobs at the rate of 46K per year it will only take about six more years to reach the employment level that we had in Dec 2007.
That doesn’t mean that the nations avg. 1.8 million per year four year college degree holders graduating will be fully utilized in their areas of training tho.
They’ll just have jobs. Maybe part-time. Maybe min-wage. Maybe temporary. Most will count them as just plain jobs and act like we are growing the economy. Oh look the jobs are growing!! Implying more people are going to work and labor force util is growing. However maybe workers are just working two or three part-time temporary positions to get by on. Nevertheless the political apparatus will proudly proclaim that we are creating “jobs” like the word “jobs” means what we think it means historically speaking. Full time living wage careers with benefits.
Comment by anon Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 3:00 pm
WRT: “This time around, it’s all in the Nanowire, Graphene, and Material Sciences areas. And we here in IL can be absolutely golden for this type of ultra high tech, but we’ve got to MOVE - and do it YESTERDAY”
—————-
The move is to take ANY discovery and MOVE it to India or Asia or some third world economy where it can be cashed in on for a fast buck. Monitize it baby! The CEO’s care not about morality or community. Schools, police, fire, public infrastructor that’s YOUR problem not ours.
Comment by anon Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 3:06 pm
As Illinois continues to fail at rebuilding its workforce the only remaining way it has to pay off it’s debts is to sell its assets.
How about we sell that $55 million dollar maggie park in Chicago for starters. Or Daley plaza perhaps? We should get a pretty good buck selling Lake Michigan to China bond holders don’t ya think? Or the city can start snatching peoples property under eminent domain so that China can put up some sweat shops here. No-no-no it’s a good think because the ONLY things that matter as the politicians tell you is that ” these sweat shops will create jobs and put people back to work”
Seriously though. When you go bankrupt your creditors make claim to your remaining assets. Since we are unwilling or unable to put every man women and child to work to claw our way out of this debt that’s pretty much where we are heading. It’s only a matter of time.
We sold the tollway. We sold the parking meters in Chicago..so the asset sale has already begun should you think that it’s crazy talk. Midway airport is on the blocks next as soviegnity is sold out from underneath us by the glorious leaders.
Comment by anon Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 3:16 pm
–We sold the tollway. We sold the parking meters in Chicago..so the asset sale has already begun should you think that it’s crazy talk.–
Daley sold those (I assume you mean Skyway, not Tollway) to bankroll his Olympic pipedream. When that failed, he used all the cash to make up a shortfall for a year or two then walked away.
None of it had anything to do with the state, and the assets you listed are not the state’s.
Comment by wordslinger Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 3:28 pm
Winning???
46,000 Jobs created in Illinois over the last year.
209,159 people added to the food stamp caseloads.
4.5 times the number of jobs created
http://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/29SNAPcurrPP.htm
Comment by anon Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 4:14 pm
Good to see the straight-up report this time. Too much sugar on something just ruins the taste of the intended dish altogether, and NObody likes all ‘o that gritty-leftover, grainy, sugary feeling all over one’s fingers when the maker cakes it on way too heavily…!
Comment by Just The Way It Is One Friday, Apr 26, 13 @ 4:39 pm