By: Mark Glennon and John Klingner
“Illinois Total Nonfarm Payroll Jobs Reach Record High, Unemployment Rate Stable in July,” said the Thursday headline from the Illinois Department of Employment Security. The nonfarm payroll jobs number is the most widely used measure on how many people are working.
Many headlines around the state copied that headline, and “gleeful officials in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration trumpeted the news, saying it proves Illinois is on the right path,” as Crain’s wrote. Deputy Gov. Andy Manar said “today’s record-breaking total payroll jobs data is clear indication of the marked level of strength in the labor market throughout the state.”
Any improvement is always nice, but it’s a mistake to think “record high” is good news. Today’s total is just 1.7% higher than it was 23 years ago. In other words, the number of jobs held in Illinois is essentially no better than it was in 2000, lagging badly behind job growth for the nation and all but one of our neighboring states.
These charts show those number from 1990 to the present.
To be exact, total nonfarm payrolls in Illinois in July were 6,153,500, only a tad above the 2000 total of 6,045,000. The current total is just one-tenth of one percent better than the previous peak just before the Covid pandemic, which was 6,145,000 in January 2020.
Illinois also reported that its July unemployment rate was 4%, which is the fifth highest of the 50 states.
It’s worth noting that, for the payroll numbers, a person with multiple jobs is counted multiple times because it’s the total number of payrolls processed. The unemployment numbers, however, count unemployed persons only once. It is based on a survey asking about employment during the previous week.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
High taxes, business hostile laws, high crime, union racketeers — who would create jobs here?
Very interesting thing happening now in Big Blue Cities like Chicago and NY – childless professional couples who can barely pay their bills and buy extras. It is stunning to see, and is much more prevalent than you may realize. The silver lining – they are being ‘red pilled’ the hard way. The Democrat cult is not growing, thus their preference now for tyranny.
There’s no indication they are being red-pilled at all. In fact, they are moving to the suburbs where housing is a little cheaper, and running out the few conservatives remaining. Glen Ellyn, Schaumburg, Palatine, Wheaton, Northbrook, Bolingbrook and beyond are all suburbs that were Biden +38 or more in 2020. In fact, looking at the map, the best case scenario is that some suburbs changed a little bit more towards Biden, while others went a little bit more Trump, but the raw numbers are so negligible that it made no difference whatsoever. The problem with Illinois are the people. That… Read more »
I’ve seen first hand Gen X and Millennials get ‘red pilled’ and question the nonsense of the Democrat cult they had blindly believed and followed. Are they Reagan Republicans yet? No. But they appear to have been ‘awakened’ and will at least listen now. Many will likely migrate now to Red States.
If Crain’s thinks something is good in the business world, you can bet that it actually isn’t. Just because you put the word “Business” in the name of your publication doesn’t mean you actually know anything about business.
There are probably 150-200,000 more Illinois residents today than 2000, which makes these numbers even less impressive.
We hicks out in the cornfields of Illinois are just reading the report wrong. We are too stupid to understand the info. We have to give the government time to rejigger
and reintroduce the numbers. We aren’t smart enough to comprehend the truth, right? Well, we understand exactly what’s going on. They are wasting their time doing all this cover up work. Illinois sucks!
Take out the growth of government jobs and the number will go down.
Private sector businesses are leaving (being chased out) the state in droves.
Once again, “how to lie with statistics.” Put a fork in JB’s bravado. Maybe Illinois voters will largely put up with this, but unlikely at a National level if he somehow squirms onto the Presidential stage.
The book by that name is a must-read. Should be required reading in schools.
First have to teach the students how to read.