14 Comments » - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 11:45 am: “Anonymous commenters, uncivil comments, rumor-mongering and profanity of any kind will be deleted.” Take a moment to come up with a screen name or you’ll be deleted. No exceptions. - ChicagoBars - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 11:45 am: Leisure and Hospitality jobs statewide still 25k-30k total jobs below the peak right before pandemic closures…which was 5 years ago. https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/SMS17000007000000001?amp%253bdata_tool=XGtable&output_view=data&include_graphs=true Indiana hospitality recovery not great, but little better. Wisconsin just about back to pre-pandemic highs consistently. I suspect Chicago’s hospitality jobs lag tracks almost exactly with the sluggish recovery in international tourism visitors but don’t have the graph skills to prove it. - Montrose - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 12:18 pm: At least we don’t have to worry about government jobs going away. Phew. /s - Lol - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 12:21 pm: 72% is a ridiculously high number for an issue like this. The reverse is scary…only 18% are private sector jobs!! Whew. - ModerateGOP - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 12:22 pm: Illinois has consistently been in the bottom 5 for states with the highest unemployment rate. Imagine how much more revenue the state would be collecting if we were just in the middle of the pack? I’m not an Illinois bashing Republican, but clearly there is so much more we can be doing here. - City Zen - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 12:38 pm: Health services, which many consider to be government-adjacent, is up 60,000 over the same timespan. The only sector in IL that has performed well outside of govt is trade and transportation, most likely buoyed by warehouse jobs. - Pot calling kettle - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 12:49 pm: It would help to bolster higher ed and keep graduating HS students from leaving the state for their college pursuits. “High school graduates leaving Illinois to go to four-year institutions has been trending slightly downward from 47.7% for those graduating in 2017, to 47.3% in 2018, and to 46.8% in 2019″ (IBHE Data Points) Universities create a highly skilled workforce pool that has the potential to attract employers. When university enrollment declines, that pool shrinks, and employers build out operations elsewhere. - Lurker - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 12:54 pm: But Rich, the anonymous posters enrich our lives with their great wisdom. /s at 12:45 - Name Withheld - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 12:56 pm: The last information I saw showed 49 state employees per 10,000 residents, or slightly less than 1 employee per 200 people. For local employees - it’s 156 people per 10,000 (or over 3x state employee level)  If the number of public employees is a concern. maybe people need to look at their local levels. - Thomas Paine - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:12 pm: === Springfield can start === 75% of government employees are employed by local government. Local government added 15K of the 23K government employees that Rich referenced. Most units of local government in Illinois are not controlled by Democrats. If you want to convince me this is a state government issue, show your work. Ii would be helpful if DCEO or some other agency broke down the data more and provided analysis. For example, Health care seems to have added about 60K jobs during those five years. - Beans Matter - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:52 pm: Illinois unemployment some of highest in the nation Illinois property taxes some of the highest in the nation Illinois gas tax some of the highest in the nation Government based jobs created 72% for previous 5years 1 in 4 people are on Medicai, which if you pay federal income taxes you are paying 100% of, not just the Illinois portion Probably the overall highest Pension debt load in the nation More tax increases on the way when the Super Majority decides what they can pass and still get re-elected A Governor who has presided over the last 5 years thinking he’s Presidential material What could go wrong… - TinMan - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 3:10 pm: There are shifts in the job market which is causing some of the lag in Illinois . We have been slow to change to it. - Tommy Boy - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 4:37 pm: Please note that in June 2000, Illinois had 6056K non-farm employees - according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ILNA - Almost the Weekend - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 5:47 pm: Pritzker is too busy running for potus, I doubt this will improve in the foreseeable future TrackBack URI Anonymous commenters, uncivil comments, rumor-mongering and profanity of any kind will be deleted. Name/Nickname - Required E-mail - Not required URL - Not required