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IMA chief responds to Pritzker comments on lagging employment growth

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Illinois

* Background is here if you need it. Governor Pritzker on Wednesday…

Isabel: The latest COFGA report found that Illinois’ job growth rate was about a 10th of the national growth rate since October 2019. Are you at all concerned about this, and how do you plan to increase that rate across the state?

Governor Pritzker: Yeah, I would remind you that when I took office, Illinois was in this similar position, right? Where there’s a low, lower growth economy for the state of Illinois than there has been for the United States more broadly.

That’s something I’ve been very interested in and focused on changing. You know, I was in business before I became governor. I have always believed that Illinois could do so much better.

As you know, we’ve had a series of crises that have hit the state, not the least of which was the COVID-19 crisis. So there are things that have impeded our progress in the state.

Having said that, as you know, over the last two and a half years basically since the end of the COVID crisis, if you can say that it’s fully ended, I think it has, the crisis part of it anyway.

We’ve been very focused in my administration on growing the economy, on attracting jobs and businesses, and that’s working. But again, it’s, you know, takes a long time to change the trajectory you’re moving a, a, you know, an aircraft carrier, when you’re changing the trajectory of a state’s growth rate.

But, we’re making progress. And I look forward to, you know, you’ll hear some announcements, as you have in the past. [I] don’t make these things up, people often have asked me ‘well when are we going to hear the’ you know, and then you hear them. But nobody takes into account that I promised them and I delivered them. And you’ll hear more announcements about that as well.

Please pardon all transcription errors.

* I called Mark Denzler yesterday and chatted with him about what the governor had said. Denzler is President and CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association…

I think what I would first say is that, traditionally, Illinois is usually one of the first states to go into, and I’m not going to say recession, but usually one of the first states to start shedding jobs. And traditionally, we’re one of the last states to come out of it. When you look at economic cycles throughout the years, that is a pattern that has traditionally happened. Now that being said, and I can address manufacturing jobs, I’m not an expert on retail or hospitality or other sectors, but when I look back, and I took some time to look back at data from October 2019, to present, which I think is what the report said. You know, in manufacturing, we’ve lost about 6500 jobs. But when you look at other neighboring states, Ohio has lost nearly double the amount of jobs. Indiana lost manufacturing jobs. California lost about 40,000 manufacturing jobs. So we’re doing better than a lot of our neighboring states. Now, Wisconsin gained, Texas gained, but in generally, in the industrial Midwest, we’ve done better than some of our other states in manufacturing.

What I would say moving forward, what we really need to focus on, and again, talking manufacturing is energy policy is critical. Manufacturers are the largest consumers of energy in the United States. We use about one-third of all the energy that’s produced in the United States, and there are growing concerns about the ability to make sure that we have generation, that we have reliability. That’s on the foremost of the minds of manufacturers.

Secondly, a huge issue that we hear about when I talk to my members is permit time. How long is it going to take a shovel to get in the ground? You know, because right now, every state is competing. They all ask the question, how quickly can I get my project started?

And then the third big issue is workforce. And I would say that our workforce is second to none. We have a fantastic manufacturing workforce. We have great colleges and universities.

And the other thing, I think, generally, what I would say is we started behind most other states. You know, Illinois struggled for years, and I do give the governor and his team a lot of credit and members of the General Assembly for focusing on education and workforce and focusing on incentive packages. We have lacked behind the country, quite frankly, severely. And so we started creating a closing fund, and created REV Act and improve the EDGE credit. And so, you know, we have dug a hole in Illinois that’s going to take some time to get out of.

* On turning the ship around…

I would agree with the governor and the fact it takes a while to turn the ship around. And it wasn’t a Republican issue or a Democrat issue, it was quite frankly, for two decades we really struggled with a focus and to kind of create a policy.

The governor has done a great job of marketing the state. And I will tell you I get calls now from companies that had never considered Illinois. They’re now saying, ‘Hey, tell me about your incentive packages, tell me about your workforce. Tell me about your energy.’ Who previously had no interest in Illinois. So I really do see renewed excitement and interest in Illinois that I didn’t see five years ago.

I would agree with the governor on that we still have improvements to make. Like I said, I think we can do things better in permitting. Because companies calling saying, how quickly can I get a shovel on the ground?

I think the incentive package, and again, credit to the governor and in the General Assembly. Literally, every year in the last five or six years, they’ve updated some incentives as they talk to companies.

And then again, the workforce issue. There’s a couple companies that have left Illinois that called me after, one went to Tennessee and one went to Mississippi, and they said ‘We struggle with workforce.’

I think as we continue investing in those at the same time we’re going to have to address the budget challenge, and we need to be careful that they don’t do it exclusively on the backs of employers by raising taxes significantly. We need to continue trying to do some about the property tax system. I continue to hear about that.

We’re going to have to revisit the energy issue. We’re major consumers and users, and we have to make sure that we have safe, reliable and low cost power. It had been an advantage of Illinois for many, many years. We’re slowly losing that advantage as our costs go up.

But you know the advantages we have when you start thinking about climate change, we have access to water. Twenty percent of the fresh water is in the Great Lakes for the manufacturing sector. That’s a huge advantage.

The announcement a few minutes ago on Quantum. I was part of the NDA, and I was with Psi-Quantum in Palo Alto, I think that has great opportunity to continue to grow our biopharmaceutical sector and life sciences, whether it’s Lake County or it’s in Chicago and other parts. I think we have a huge opportunity to grow that.

And I do think you see in the state’s five-year plan, we actually have a plan. We have a focus. If we can continue down that path, I think that will be very helpful.

posted by Isabel Miller
Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 11:26 am

Comments

What is the reason we are always first in and last out of a recession? And why are we not working to find a solution to that problem?

Comment by Just Me 2 Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 11:52 am
Mark Denzler: “Illinois struggled for years, and I do give the governor and his team a lot of credit and members of the General Assembly for focusing on education and workforce and focusing on incentive packages.”

There’s certainly something to be said for this era of adult leadership.

– MrJM

Comment by @misterjayem Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 11:53 am
===What is the reason we are always first in and last out of a recession? ===

This is Isabel’s post, but in reading it now, I think he may have misspoken.

We tend to enter recessions later, and one reason is that we don’t have a huge auto industry presence here. Car and car parts makers drop fast and (usually) come out fast.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 11:59 am
I wish there was more elaboration on ‘We struggle with workforce.’ Is it quality, preparation and/or abundance? I know in my sector, public health, there is a critical worker shortage.

Comment by levivotedforjudy Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 12:13 pm
It’s refreshing to see a guy like Denzler, obviously not a progressive in the slightest, willing to work with a collaborative way with the Governor to get things done for Illinois. He doesn’t just rattle off all the bad things about Illinois but where we are doing things right and how we can do better. Manufacturers are lucky to have him as their advocate.

Comment by ModerateGOP Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 12:17 pm
JB is always rationalizing and spinning gibberish happy talk- Read today’s WSJ- you can’t give away Gold Coast houses as the City has an ongoing image problem with crime and then there was Nowlens’ Tribuns Op Ed- Illinois has lost over 400 thousand population mostly higher income types while every one of our neighboring states is gaining population- if JB wants to turn things around start focusing on the business jobs generators and stop making Illinois a welcoming refuge for the so called newcomers

Comment by Sue Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 12:21 pm
===you can’t give away Gold Coast houses===

LOLOL

Don’t be ridiculous.

To the point, some very rich folks paid too much for property, so other very rich folks are buying at reduced, but still incredibly high, prices.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 12:27 pm
===Is it quality, preparation and/or abundance?===

Yes.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 12:28 pm
=and spinning gibberish…=

Speaking of self-owns…

Comment by JS Mill Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 12:37 pm
@JS Mill, I don’t think the spinning gibberish got to @Sue as much as the next part. Her ilk sure hate happy talk. 😉

Comment by Lurker Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 12:46 pm
- you can’t give away Gold Coast houses -

Ah yes, the outlandishly wealthy housing index, the gold standard of economic indicators. Do you operate a motor vehicle in your general condition?

Comment by Excitable Boy Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 12:46 pm
Before criticizing- read today’s WSJ article- it’s not just a few overpriced properties- it’s a multipage article in the Friday property section

Comment by Sue Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 12:56 pm
==spinning gibberish==

Pot meet kettle Sue. Sheesh. You lack of self awareness is amazing.

Comment by Demoralized Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 1:01 pm
Ok Sue, I’ll indulge you this one time.

From the article:

- In the third quarter, there were 28 Chicago home sales of $4 million or more, plummeting 28% from 39 in the same period of 2021, according to data from BrokerMetrics. The median price of those sales was $4.625 million, down from $5 million in 2021’s third quarter. -

So the median price dropped $375k and there are 11 less $4+ million homes than in 2021. You’re right, this ranks second to only the great Chicago fire in terms of sheer devastation.

Maybe get some fresh air and a coffee.

Comment by Excitable Boy Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 1:12 pm
“I wish there was more elaboration on ‘We struggle with workforce.’”

We are just now beginning to reverse the effects of the deliberate abandonment of vocational education in the 1980s/90s/2000s in favor of the “every kid needs to go to college” mentality. Put simply, decision makers across this country badly misjudged what skills would be needed in the 21st century economy and now there is a literal “lost generation” of missing workers (mainly late Gen X and Millenials) that didn’t go into the skilled trades and manufacturing.

Smart communities are pushing CTE, apprenticeships and programs like Skills USA as hard as they can, but its a 30-year hole that we’re trying to dig ourselves out of.

Comment by sulla Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 1:32 pm
Most people don’t buy $4 million homes. Case Schiller price growth for October: The 20 city average was 4.6%. The cities with biggest increases were:

- New York City (7.5%)
- Cleveland (7.1%)
- Chicago (6.9%)
https://www.bankrate.com/real-estate/case-shiller/

Comment by supplied_demand Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 1:40 pm
Sue would complain if Mondays were abolished, and ice cream was free.

Comment by Flyin'Elvis'-Utah Chapter Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 1:42 pm
New from Milton Bradley. The board game that’s sweeping America: Spinning Gibberish. The object of the game is to give the longest answer unrelated to the question as possible. Pit your skills against masters of the craft like JB Pritzker, Kamala (the salad master) Harris, Dick Durbin, and many more…

Comment by Captain Obvious Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 2:49 pm
Folks- go read the article- page 1 of the Journals property report

Comment by Sue Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 3:05 pm
R. Miller’s “LOLOL” certainly seems to qualify as an “uncivil comment” but perhaps that rule only applies to his readers.

Comment by homer Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 3:58 pm
- Folks- go read the article- page 1 of the Journals property report -

I read the whole thing, Sue. It’s rich people whining because they overpaid for their properties and blaming it on anyone except themselves.

It even mentions that less expensive home prices have risen in the same time period.

You apparently have no capacity for embarrassment.

Comment by Excitable Boy Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 4:00 pm
- R. Miller’s “LOLOL” certainly seems to qualify as an “uncivil comment” but perhaps that rule only applies to his readers. -

Another snowflake heard from.

Comment by Excitable Boy Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 4:01 pm
===“LOLOL” certainly seems to qualify as an “uncivil comment”===

LOLOL

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 4:04 pm
As you know…….

Comment by lowdrag Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 4:05 pm
Working in the publlic sector for seven years and now working in manufacturing for the last four. Two in Texas and two in Illinois I will say a couple things.

Mark is 100% correct, the workforce in Illinois is second to none, you can have no zoning laws nor workers compensation, but finding an educated workforce to not only have the knowledge, but show up on time to work their 8 or 12 hour shift, it’s Illinois.

Second,when it comes to Worker’s Compensation or other red tape laws like ODRSA these laws are made by individuals who have zero private sector experience and it negatively impacts other employees. Manufacturing is not Monday through Friday 8-5. Manufacturing is 24-7 and ODRSA forces employees to take off a Monday instead of working ten days and getting their weekend off. Worker’s Comp won’t change here until Dems actually see how it impacts other employee’s and costs. That’s up for Mark to educate them on, and not focus on the 1% of instances where employees are entitled to these payouts.

Comment by Almost the Weekend Friday, Dec 13, 24 @ 4:30 pm