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Illinois

UPDATE: Grand Old Partisan has an interesting take at Illinoize.

First, let’s go to the usual he-said, she-said from the AP:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Thursday that Illinois added more jobs - 23,100 - in April than any other state in the nation, but his opponent in the fall gubernatorial election questioned the numbers, charging the governor has released misleading figures before.

According to a statement issued by Blagojevich, state and federal figures show that April was the first month since January 1995 in which Illinois led the nation in monthly job growth and bring to 43,600 the number of new jobs in the state in the past three months. […]

But state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, the GOP nominee for governor, questioned the figures. Earlier this year, Illinois Auditor General William Holland contended that a count of jobs by the administration’s Commerce Department was filled with errors, missing information and had questionable definitions of what to count as a job as well as figures contradicted by other documents.

Said Topinka: “This particular administration just has a problem with numbers.”

But there’s nothing in the story to indicate which side is telling the truth. For any discussion of that we have to go to blogger Greg Blankenship of the Illinois Policy Institute:

I have to say though, the Governor’s numbers are consistent with the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s April numbers on regional and state employment (.pdf). Illinois did create 23,100 jobs in April. For the Topinka campaign to question these numbers is misguided. These aren’t Gov. Blagojevich’s numbers, they are the Federal Government’s.

Still, Blankenship continues…

The Illinois’ economy has only improved .8% on the job’s front since a year ago April and unemployment in Illinois is still over 5% at 5.1%. Nationally, the unemployment rate is hovering at 4.7%. 8 states enjoyed higher growth statistically — many more with 1% growth or more — than Illinois including Iowa which added a full percantage point.

And blogger Dan Curry adds this to the mix:

Rod Blagojevichâ€™s Illinois is 45th in the nation creating jobs since he took office in 2003. Today, he bragged about having one month where he created more raw jobs than [any] state in the country. Thatâ€™s not a big accomplishment because Illinois is the sixth largest state in the country and statistically it ought to lead the nation occasionally in monthly raw statistics.

Overall, itâ€™s like a baseball team bragging after a three-run inning that it scored more runs than anyone in that inning even though it is now behind 12-3.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jun 9, 06 @ 4:28 am

Comments

One of the ways Blago and his hacks swell all the new job numbers is by counting people who are trained to do a new job within the same company. new jobs skills = that means “we created a new job!”

Here is a sad fact, as of 2004 Illinois had more government jobs than it had manufacturing jobs.

Any mope that believes G Rod has turned things around in Illinois for creating jobs is crazy. Even a blind sow finds an acorn in the woods once in a while.

Comment by no jobs Friday, Jun 9, 06 @ 6:45 am
If you belive this number you also believe that we will get 10 billion on the lottery sale and that it will make our childre little Einstiens and last the schools for the next 3 centuries.I wonder if they ever read the story about the little boy who cried wolf.WOLF WOLF WOLF.

Comment by DOWNSTATE Friday, Jun 9, 06 @ 7:16 am
Isn’t this Juan Pierre bragging about hitting a homer run?

One homer in 3-1/2 years?

Louis G. Atsaves

Comment by Louis G. Atsaves Friday, Jun 9, 06 @ 8:10 am
Come on. Your two authorities here, Blankenship and Curry, while unquestionably intelligent, are also unquestionably partisan. And even Blankenship’s comments are not scathing, and you left out his concluding sentence:

“So, yeah, they have the numbers right, this time.”

Comment by SenorAnon Friday, Jun 9, 06 @ 11:01 am
Louis -

Word.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Jun 9, 06 @ 12:38 pm
what about the other 20,500 he is claiming from Feb and March. That doesn’t seem to match what the BLS counted for those months. I’ll have more at Illinoize on that soon.

Comment by grand old partisan Friday, Jun 9, 06 @ 1:54 pm
Interesting — you can always have more jobs from employees returning to work after being laid off. As a countermeasurement, what about first time unemployment claims?

People disappear into the Gray market (pay in cash and no state reporting) and come back into the open. Was there a drop in welfare claims? The single raw number doesn’t tell much.

Comment by Truthful James Friday, Jun 9, 06 @ 3:45 pm