Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

This just in… Unemployment rises to 10.3 percent

Posted in:

Illinois

* 12:22 pm - The news gets even worse. From a press release. All emphasis added…

JUNE JOBLESS RATE INCHES HIGHER TO 10.3 PERCENT
0.2 PERCENT INCREASE TEMPERED BY SLOWING JOB LOSS

CHICAGO – The Illinois seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment rate for June is 10.3 percent, an increase of +0.2 percent over May, according to figures released today by the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

“Although the June unemployment figure has again increased, this number represents a slower pace of job loss for the third consecutive month,” IDES Director Maureen O’Donnell said. “The first part of an economic recovery is actually a slower pace of job
loss. Positive news is on the horizon, but it’s too soon to tell when we will begin to see job growth.”

Total non-farm payroll in Illinois declined by -13,900 jobs in June. While Illinois has lost jobs for nine consecutive months, the rate of that decline has slowed for three consecutive months. The number of unemployed people reached 683,300, the highest since November 1983.

The Construction sector lost -5,400 jobs in June, its largest monthly job loss this year. Employment in the Manufacturing sector declined -2,800. Although that represents the 17th consecutive month the sector has shed jobs, it is the smallest decline in the last
eight months. The Professional and Business Services sector reported its strongest gain in the last 24 months, adding +2,400 workers in June.

As noted below, the state’s unemployment trust fund was down to just $81.8 million in cash earlier this month. That’s a $1.45 billion drop since January.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 12:22 pm

Comments

Great time to raise taxes? Of course not.

Comment by Steve Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 12:26 pm
Democrats in charge what do you expect!

Comment by Downstater Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 12:27 pm
Let’s try to avoid little drive-by comments, please.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 12:29 pm
I know about 177 more state employees that need to lose their jobs as well. They’re easy to find…just look anywhere but the Capitol when they’re supposed to be working.

There isn’t a ONE of these clowns that deserves to remain employed after what they just pulled on the budget. I’m done supporting incumbents.

Comment by NimROD Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 12:31 pm
Remember in November.

(And February too.)

Comment by John Bambenek Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 12:38 pm
That number is probably soft as well. There are many contract workers in the professional services who have been trying to get by on very little work.

It seems to be picking up in some of the areas I work in — advertising, PR, media. Historically, they’re some of the first areas to go into then pull out of recesssion, so hopefully that’s a good sign.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 12:41 pm
The worst part is that the economic recovery will come to Illinois AFTER all of the surrounding states because of the state’s fees and taxes on businesses. First, I don’t think economic recovery is even close on the national scale, and probably at least two to three years away for Illinois. Just speculation, but I see nothing that points to a more optimistic projection than that.

More importantly, when the surrounding states start coming out of this mess, other states are going to be even MORE attractive to businesses and employers as they have more money sooner to lure them in. Add to that the currently budget that unimaginably digs the hole even deeper, it seems were getting further away from the light at the end of the tunnel rather than closer.

What a fantastic situation. Well done, Governor, Speaker and Sen. President.

Comment by Amuzing Myself Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 12:42 pm
Rich, you could hire about a dozen people and have them try and keep track of where Gov Quinn stands on any issue. This would be a challenging job.

Comment by fed up Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 12:48 pm
We have two US Automakers on taxpayer life support. Both have many parts suppliers in Illinois. If GM and Chrysler become exinct, which many foresee, Illinois’ suppliers will also start shutting down and laying off.

Today, GM’s market share is at 15%, and dropping. Chrysler has almost fallen off the charts. These 2009 market numbers are still reverberating. With the multi-billion dollar bailouts propping them up, these withered manufacturing giants would have died last month. But this cannot last, and eventually reality will hit Illinois when it hits Detroit, later this year.

Illinois’ economic situation will worsen.

Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 12:49 pm
I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about a week ago suggesting that the Obama administration is cooking the books (so to speak) by grossly under reporting actual unemployment numbers. Their contention was that the administration switched back to not reporting people who, after a certain period, essentially gave up looking for work and therefore were dropped statistically. WSJ reported that some economists believe that actual Federal rate of unemployment is currently around 16%.

I am not certain if IDES uses a similar methodology but I suspect 10.3% is awfully low compared to reality.

Comment by NimROD Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 12:49 pm
Fed Up - read today’s Bernie’s column as he just hired a 30 yr old @ $80,000 and moved another PR person @ $57,000 and then hired a 3rd at $90,000 and his top spokeperson makes $110,000.

State workers are getting laid off and he needs new spin people.

Comment by Fedup2 Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 12:57 pm
Bambenek - I plan on remembering, because if you think you can blame this on Illinois Democrats you’re probably as insane as I think you are. And I’ll be voting against your pathetic amendment as well.

Comment by Small Town Liberal Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 12:58 pm
So what did people expect? A decade of state administration that actively discourages job creation in Illinois has caused this. Don’t just blame the economy - neighboring states are doing much better. Pro-plaintiff workman’s comp, lack of lawsuit reform, corruption, fees and red tape, all work to cause businesses not to locate in Illinois. Thus state policies shrink the tax base while spending far outstrips inflation. That’s the systemic fault that must be cured before any income tax increase is passed. The deficit will get worse every year otherwise.

Comment by Legaleagle Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 12:59 pm
Nimrod, it’s called underemployment, and the number is signifcantly higher than the reported unemployment rate.

However, I take with a large grain of salt most of what’s reported from Rupert Murdoch-owned media outlets (and most others as well).

Comment by The Doc Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 1:00 pm
++I am not certain if IDES uses a similar methodology but I suspect 10.3% is awfully low compared to reality.++

The official unemployment, just like the poverty rate, under counts for a variety of reasons.

When the 2009 Report on Illinois Poverty was released a few months ago, it was estimated that an additional 405,000 people were in poverty (making it close to 2 million) based on the unemployment rate being close to 9%. With us hitting 10.3% - and we have not topped out - we are probably looking at almost 2.1 or 2.2 million people in Illinois in poverty - that is over 16% of the population. And that, again, is an under count.

Comment by montrose Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 1:00 pm
For too many years, our IL leaders have not been leading, they have been reacting. What have they done to make IL attractive to business? My kids have moved to east & west coasts in search of terrific careers & opportunities. Who manages all of the IL tax receipts & looks ahead to plan for tomorrow? Who has inspired & attracted the best of the best to come here because we have more opportunity here than anywhere else?

Years of scandal with many elected officials, bad crime rates, truancy rates and now unemployment figures are what outsiders think of IL. Inability to write a budget each year has become routine - would we fire our employees if they performed like these elected officials? Gave them budget deadlines & watch ‘em blow past it repeatedly? Trying to raise taxes during a tough recession will do what to unemployment, crime and business here? What successful economic model shows anything good coming from managing budgets like this OR from raising taxes during rising unemployment, rising home foreclosure rates and falling GDP?

Comment by North of I-80 Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 1:02 pm
@Nimrod

You are referring to the U6 number. Reagan switched to the U3. We’ve used it ever since. The U6 takes into account those unemployed longer than 6 months as well as the underemployed.

Comment by Anon Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 1:09 pm
==because if you think you can blame this on Illinois Democrats you’re probably as insane as I think you are.===

OK…I’m game. Just who SHOULD we blame this mess on and why? I will freely admit that what passes these days for a Republican Party shoulders some of the blame but the lion’s share of it lies squarely at the doorstep of the Democrats.

It’s not hard to govern so long as you have someone elses’ money to spend. Problem is, we ran out of it about 6 years ago and the Democrats have continued to expand government irresponsibly ever since.

Comment by NimROD Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 1:10 pm
This will be even a larger number for July due to the number of people who have been laid-off due to the delayed budget which forced many agencies through out the state who were owed money by the state for services rendered. While a budget has been signed, funding has not been received and will not be received by many agencies until after the door has been closed and locked.

As one who is located below I-80, the county I reside in is currently estimating 28% due to closings of plants and small business which have been unable to sustain this economy. While the majority of the population is located north of I-80, so is the majority of employment.

Comment by One Of The Many Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 1:12 pm
It’s a global economy, folks. The actions of the folks in Springfield, or a state budget, don’t amount to a hill of beans when it comes to job creation, access to capital, etc.

Don’t believe the hype from the economic development offices.

China and India coming on line (and cheaper) the last 10-20 years in manufacturing and services has had a bigger effect than anything even the national government could contend with (unless you wanted to go with tariffs).

We’ll be lucky if the fed’s monetary policy or the national government’s priming the pump unwinds this thing any faster or less painfully than it would on its own.

What neighboring states are doing so much better? Where are the Utopias everybody’s fleeing to for the great jobs?

Heard it all before.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 1:13 pm
Is Quinn, and is the legislature going to work with the federal government to extend, sadly, again, the unemployment benefits? Double digits and a good portion are going to be through the 26, plus 33 weeks rapidly … any word?

Comment by Englewood Job Seeker Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 1:24 pm
NimROD and the Doc

According to the US Dept of Labor, the actual total unemployment for the US is 16.8% (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t12.htm). By projection, Illinois should have more than 16.8% unemployment.

Comment by Wondering Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 1:42 pm
Just anecdotally, among my circle of friends and acquainances, I have never talked to so many unemployed and underemployed people in my life as today…maybe the early 80’s were just as bad, when our county had unemployment well into the double digits.

I do notice that areas that have historically been hit by high unemployment seem to weather the storm better than other areas. The high growth areas of the far west suburbs have been used to nothing but increased growth and revenues, and are now dealing with an unprecedented level of everything from unpaid water bills to homelessness to domestic violence symptomatic of our sick economy.

Blame is fine, and a sometimes necessary release. But the family facing foreclosure, or the recent graduate with dim job prospects, is probably more interested in solutions.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 1:43 pm
My job was budget cut yesterday… Not fun times for me.

Comment by Anon 1:56 Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 1:56 pm
If the business climate her is the reason that unemployment is going up why isn’t the service industry declining as well. The fact of the matter is that we have two economies in Illinois. The manufacturing economy has been dying for a number of years while the service economy has been growing. The same is true for personal income for these two sectors. Go to the NIU Gov’t website and read the reports on the state of the Illinois economy and see the facts. http://www.cgsniu.org/. People who have a college degree or more are doing well. Those that don’t are not. Unfortunately we have not focused on developing an overall skilled workforce and have not prepared for the challenges of the global economy. Many of our factories were built years ago and have not been upgraded. We have not kept up our competitiveness with China, India, etc. I own a business and it isn’t my liability or work comp insurance that kills me, it is health insurance. Let’s focus on facts - not emotional talking points.

Comment by Marcus Agrippa Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 2:00 pm
For anyone interested in the global economy and the midwest: There was a great book that came out last year on the midwest called caught in the middle by former tribune writer, R.C. Longworth. It’s a great read, not overly wonkish and very relevant.

Comment by Shore Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 2:17 pm
Ahhh, the Reagan years. Yes, I remember them well. I was a welfare caseworker at that time and my caseload skyrocketed because of all the factories that left Chicago for warmer climes.

I hear Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase are doing very well.

Comment by Emily Booth Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 9:30 pm
Great piece in Rolling Stone by Matt Taibbi about how Goldman Sachs, enabled by the federal government, manufactured and profiteered off each of the six economic bubbles since the Great Depression. A quote is “if the US is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs is the drain.” Won’t find this info in the mainstream corp media. VERY REVEALING what REALITY WE ARE IN.

Comment by state employee dreaming of Vermont Thursday, Jul 16, 09 @ 11:20 pm
Thanks wordslinger and others for letting NimRod know that Illinois actually resides in the united states which is going through a recession.

Comment by Small Town Liberal Friday, Jul 17, 09 @ 7:25 am