* Oy…
llinois’ unemployment rate shot up almost half a percentage point in August to 9.9 percent. It was a fourth straight month of diminishing job prospects that state officials blame on weak consumer confidence and the struggles of the national economy.
Even the state’s manufacturing sector, which had been a bright spot even as other types of employers shed jobs the past few months, cut employment in August.
Illinois’ unemployment rate surged up from 9.5 percent in July but has been increasing since it was at 8.7 percent in May, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security. The national jobless rate held steady in August at 9.1 percent.
The biggest job losses last month were in government, mostly local government, at 2,400. Manufacturing was a distant second with losses of 1,000, but manufacturing had been increasing over the past several months, so that’s a big disappointment. “Information” jobs and educational/health jobs were down 200. Everything else was up, led by “Professional and Business Services” at 2,200 and “Financial Activities” at 1,500.
* We’re not doing well in comparison to other states, either…
Seven states experienced statistically significant over-the- month unemployment rate increases in August. Illinois and Pennsylvania reported the largest of these (+0.4 percentage point each), followed by North Carolina (+0.3 point); Maryland, North Dakota, and Virginia (+0.2 point each); and Georgia (+0.1 point). The District of Columbia also posted a significant over- the-month rate increase (+0.3 percentage point). The remaining 43 states recorded jobless rates that were not measurably different from those of a month earlier, though some had changes that were at least as large numerically as the significant changes.
* And if Democrats are hoping that Republicans will share the blame on the national economy, well, they may be outta luck, according to the latest Gallup poll…
When voters were asked if the Republicans or Democrats would be better suited to deal with the economy, 44 percent said the Republicans are better equipped, while 37 percent chose the Democrats.
Gallup noted that the seven-point Republican lead on this survey question—which has been asked periodically by pollsters since 1965—is the highest since January 1995, when the GOP had a 10-point lead over the Democrats.
If Obama is able to gain a consensus in Congress and pass the sweeping jobs package, it will likely be a key factor for whether he is re-elected.
Another poll, this time conducted by Bloomberg, released on Wednesday found that the majority of Americans don’t think Obama’s jobs package will help lower the unemployment rate, which has consistently stayed above 9 percent since the recession began in 2007.
* Related…
* Don’t leave us out, insurance agents tell legislators
* Will County gives state an ultimatum on airport - Officials say they won’t support any more state purchases of land at the site until an airport authority is created
* The 25 Most Economically Powerful Cities in the World: #4 - Chicago
* Caterpillar East Peoria plant to undergo $200 million upgrade
* Why the smart grid is stuck in first gear: The bulk of utilities in the U.S. aren’t regulated in a way that creates an incentive to invest in energy-saving technologies, according to many GridWeek speakers.
* Glib Talk on New Jobs Can’t Hide Grim Reality: Since Emanuel arrived at City Hall, Crain’s Chicago Business has reported on planned layoffs at a diverse array of Chicago companies: Harpo Studios (250 people), Emmis Radio (78), Ryerson, Inc. (67), the Sun-Times (456), Schofield Media Group (107), Swissport Cargo Services (146) and Morse Calipers Services (161), among others.
* Mark Denzler: State needs jobs, but not at any cost
- Mr. Ethics - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 11:46 am:
Can’t some of this on the local level just be the college kids going back to school?
- MrJM - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 12:06 pm:
Fortunately those local government jobs aren’t real jobs and they didn’t spend real money at real local businesses so this won’t have a real effect on the real economy.
Fortunately.
– MrJM
- Rich Miller - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 12:08 pm:
MrJM, let’s hope people realize that was intended as snark.
- GMatts - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 12:19 pm:
Re: Job losses: Quinn will put on his thinking cap and decide to raise taxes to make up for the loss of revenue from the sources that used to pay taxes…er, wait….
- 47th Ward - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 12:27 pm:
Anti-government people probably cheer the loss of government jobs. Business owners, on the other hand, hate losing customers, regardless of who employs them. Or used to employ them.
A big part of the economic downturn is due to lack of demand. Why can’t the Republicans understand that this is not the time for austerity and government cut-backs?
- Give Me A Break - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 12:35 pm:
How can Chicago be ranked Number 4 in the world? I thought the Illinois GOP said the state is a sink hole and headed to certian doom. And some of our friends in downstate want Chicago to just leave the state and go away.
- Chris - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 12:36 pm:
You’re right 47th Ward, now is the time we should increase the government payrolls and raise taxes on everyone!
- wordslinger - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 12:36 pm:
–Local governments continue to struggle with tight finances, driven down both by decreasing tax revenues and the state’s troubles finances. Illinois’ government is months behind on payments to local governments and institutions around the state because of its ongoing multibillion-dollar budget deficit.
–In all, Illinois has shed about 12,000 government jobs since May, down to 843,300, or 1.4 percent.–
Does refinancing the state’s old bills at a lower rate still look like a bad idea?
- Bob - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 12:44 pm:
How about we do what 23 other states have done and make it illegal for public unions to effectively collectively bargain their way out of employment?
Now it’s just a race to the bottom.
You can either fire people to save money or make everyone contribute more to their pension/healthcare, or somewhere in between.
It’s clear Illinois’s zombie voting Democrat block who votes for the (D) after the name without question gets the government they deserve: An expensive, inefficient, underemployed public sector.
- Shore - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 12:51 pm:
ethics-not an expert but they usually have something about seasonally adjusted in there.
that world ranking is somewhat dubious. every think tank/magazine has some form of global power index of cities and states. I’ve seen chicago ranked in the 3rd and 4th tiers with german cities.
- wordslinger - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 1:09 pm:
–that world ranking is somewhat dubious. every think tank/magazine has some form of global power index of cities and states. I’ve seen chicago ranked in the 3rd and 4th tiers with german cities.–
Based on? What’s “dubious” about measuring by GDP? It’s an objective measurement.
How do your “4th tier” German cities rank here?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_GDP
- Observer of the State - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 1:29 pm:
I voted yes. even though I know this is just a political ploy.
The problem is there is too much reliance on the property taxes for the funding of our education.
It is not a progressive tax and it is rising much faster than people’s incomes or the value of the house. Of course the value of the home is not really equated with income either as houses grew in value while wages stagnated.
A progressive income tax that takes the burden off of property taxes really seems the most equitable way to pay for our needs. Otherwise you will find people priced out of their home not by their mortgage but by taxes.
- Observer of the State - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 1:30 pm:
Whoops wrong comment stream on previous comment
- Six Degrees of Separation - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 2:08 pm:
Re: the Will County Airport. Maybe Rep. Jackson will play nice with Will County now that he represents some of them.
- Holdingontomywallet - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 2:09 pm:
“If Obama is able to gain a consensus in Congress and pass the sweeping jobs package, it will likely be a key factor for whether he is re-elected.”
Doesn’t that assume the jobs package would actually be a success? There are many factors contributing to the poor numbers for Obama and the democrats. They don’t have many successful policies to hang their hats on.
- dupage dan - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 2:50 pm:
MrJM,
When I was in college I took a 100 level economics course. During that class I learned about money multipliers. Seems as tho jobs in the private sector have that effect on economy while gov’t jobs don’t. While I believe that gov’t fulfills a role that private sector jobs don’t it is important to realize that, however important those gov’t services are, they are ultimately a drag on the economy. A balance must be maintained between those jobs that are money multipliers and gov’t jobs that aren’t. In other words, you can’t grow your way out of a recession by having the gov’t hire more employees. In the short term it might make an employee feel better - it might allow that employee to spend the paycheck on some goods and services - but, in the end, it doesn’t grow the economy in a meaningful way. If that were true, we should all be hired by the gov’t and all our troubles would be solved.
- wordslinger - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 3:06 pm:
–Seems as tho jobs in the private sector have that effect on economy while gov’t jobs don’t. While I believe that gov’t fulfills a role that private sector jobs don’t it is important to realize that, however important those gov’t services are, they are ultimately a drag on the economy.–
You should have gone to the second day of class. That’s incredibly simplistic and patently wrong.
How in the world did the United States build the largest economy, ever, on Earth with this “ultimate drag on the economy” of roads, communications, power, clean water, safe food, public safety, schools and universities, rule of law, etc?
They, of course, are the foundation of building and maintaining wealth. Are you operating under the idea that governments were formed for some other reason?
Seriously, are you under the delusion that standards of living were higher 100 years ago, when there was much less government “drag” on the economy?
- dupage dan - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 3:33 pm:
word,
You appear to have ignored the basic gist of my post. However, I will reply to yours with the same care to which you replied to mine. Since you believe that gov’t jobs are a boon to mankind, we should support 100% gov’t employment.
My post maintained that we need to have balance between private and public employment. You didn’t see that word, balance, in there, word? Perhaps you need to re-read my post rather than blast it.
Really, now, some writers here would rather pick out the one word, or phrase, that perhaps is a bit awkward and blast away at that rather than to get the general point of a post.
Perhaps you have heard stories similar to a person trying to start a new business having to deal with a dozen or more gov’t agencies with contradictory rules while trying to get a permit to start up, agencies with conflicting requirments leading the person to believe he’s landed in a Kafka novel. All this while trying to realize the American dream of owning a business (and, perhaps, hiring taxpayers). If that ain’t a drag on the economy I don’t know what is. Would I recommend getting rid of all gov’t because it is that type of drag on the economy even tho I know some of the public works projects and infrastructure the gov’t provides are essential? No - but then I don’t pretend that it is a constant source of benign support as you appear to believe. Your post comes across as a bunch of slogans rather than a serious attempt to debate the issue.
BGW, I attended the whole class and the professor (Keynesian tho he may have been) suggested I go into economics as a profession. Knowing myself as I did, and flattered as I was, I knew I didn’t have the discipline needed to be good at it. Gotta A in the class, tho.
- Norseman - Friday, Sep 16, 11 @ 4:20 pm:
So dupage dan that means that the my government earned money that I spend at the store, movie theaters,restaurants and gas stations does not go to creating jobs? Thankfully I took a different econ class