The monthly unemployment rate rose to a new record high since current methodologies were enacted in 1976 and the monthly decline in nonfarm payroll jobs also set a record. .Compared to a year ago, nonfarm payroll employment decreased by -822,800 jobs, with losses across all major industries. The number of unemployed workers increased dramatically from the prior month, a +280.3 percent increase to 1,004,400, a new record high, and was up +270.6 percent over the same month for the prior year.

The Illinois Emergency Management Agency, or IEMA, sent a memo to local law enforcement officials on May 20 informing them federal funds may be withheld from their department if they do not enforce Pritzker’s executive order. It stated, “failure to execute or enforce the [executive order] could be considered noncompliance with the [Public Assistance Program Grant] Agreement condition to comply with all applicable state laws, regulations and policies thus placing the applicant’s funding in jeopardy.”

Scott Walker, former governor of Wisconsin: “In Illinois, state government employees are set to receive a $261 million automatic pay raise in July. Common sense, it seems, has been suspended in the ‘Land of Lincoln.'”

That’s roughly $4.6 million a day through a relaxed purchasing process, with no legislative oversight and almost all of it at inflated prices. Pritzker said the state’s procurement team did as much as they could to avoid waste and scams, but wouldn’t elaborate on the various methods the state used to ensure a vendor was reputable.

Conditioning bailouts on reform is already the norm across the world in both the public and private sectors. It’s the model used in the 2007-2009 bank bailouts, the corporate financial assistance under the recently passed CARES Act and the European Debt Crisis that struck in the wake of the Great Recession.

House passage of the elections omnibus marked Thursday’s most significant legislative accomplishment on a day when action was expected on a new state budget, a COVID-19 relief package and a list of other issues, including possible tweaks sought by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to the state law authorizing a Chicago casino.

An actuary’s perspective.

“The calls need to get answered, the applications need to be taken and they need to process the claims and at the rate they’re doing this right now – at two percent of the calls coming in – they’ll never get their money,” State Rep. Fred Crespo, D-Hoffman Estates, said.

In a truncated session, state lawmakers are working on details of what could be a $39.7 billion spending plan. That’s about level with the current fiscal year’s spending plan, even with the expected crater in revenue from the economic shutdown imposed by government.

Pritzker has boasted Illinois is now testing the most residents per capita among the most populous states.

Todd Maisch, president and CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce: “Exelon is an outstanding Illinois employer. It provides jobs, invests in our economy and is committed to ensuring our lights turn on every day. However, the company’s legislative agenda in Springfield is disturbingly tied to legislation that separates the success of its shareholders from the success of its customers.”

“One of the big things we’re going to do is make sure to increase access to TeleHealth and TeleMedicine,” he explained. “The other thing we’re going to do is make sure we have additional support for behavioral health and mental health…we want to study how to increase access to broadband. So many more people are probably going to be working from home, staying home with their kids because they don’t have childcare – broadband access is going to be more important than ever.”

The department processed more than a million initial claims between March 1 and May 2, compared with 78,100 initial claims during the same period in 2019, state officials have said. The department also has processed more than 50,000 claims under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program to aid the self-employed since that system went live May 11.

“The millions of casualties of a continued shutdown will be hiding in plain sight, but they will be called alcoholism, homelessness, suicide, heart attack, stroke, or kidney failure. In youths it will be called financial instability, unemployment, despair, drug addiction, unplanned pregnancies, poverty, and abuse.”

Legal experts told the Sun-Times parties can move cases from state court to federal court if there is a constitutional issue at play, but opposing parties can fight the move. State lawyer Thomas Verticchio wrote in Thursday’s removal notice that Bailey’s lawsuit “seeks redress for alleged deprivations of Bailey’s federal constitutional rights caused by actions taken under color of state law.”

“The proposal put forward by the Illinois Chamber is an important step in moving the discussion forward on how we safely reopen our state and get our economy moving forward more quickly,” he said. An outline of the bill is included in this report.

Comment: Yet another analysis showing Illinois is an outlier, being one of only three states “mostly closed.”

The state’s employed share of the population suddenly dropped 20% to 49% from February to May 16. Illinois’ employment rate’s previous low was 58% during the worst period of the Great Recession, declining 11% relative to pre-recession peaks.

IDES has a long history of fiscal mismanagement, failing to recover $115 million in erroneous payments last year and $450 million between 2012 and 2016. Audits have repeatedly found mismanagement, including allowing claims to go unanswered for more than two months.

“At least we can all head over to an essential liquor store or to the essential recreational marijuana store before getting the essential chips and essential queso dip from the essential grocery store for a night of binge-watching on Netflix.”

On May 20, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency issued a memorandum to state and local law enforcement agencies, designated by state law as emergency services and emergence management agencies; The local agencies “are statutorily required to execute and enforce” the executive orders. “It is IEMA’s view that the Governor’s EO takes precedence over any home-rule authority,” the IEMA wrote.