By: Ted Dabrowski and Nick Binotti
Gov. J.B. Pritzker told America last week on a CNN interview that President Biden has “…done a lot to revive American manufacturing. In my state, you know, we’ve seen jobs and companies coming back to the United States and to Illinois.”
The governor’s comment about Illinois is simply not true when you measure it by what really matters: the number of Illinoisans who are actually employed. Fewer people are on Illinois’ employment rolls today than when Gov. Pritzker took office.*
Back then, in 2019, Illinois employed 6,273,060 workers, according to the BLS’ Local Area Unemployment Statistics Program. Based on the latest numbers, only 6,193,823 are employed today. That’s a loss of 80,000 working Illinoisans during the governor’s tenure.
It’s also the nation’s 3rd-worst performance over that 5-year span. Only California and New York suffered bigger losses in employment than Illinois did.
In contrast, many states’ employment rolls boomed over the same period. The number of Texans employed is up by over 1.3 million people since January 2019. Florida employment is up by over 900,000.
And states like Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia have all added more than 200,000 to their employment rolls. Below, we show the nation’s top ten leaders in employment creation, as well as the bottom ten. (Data on all 50 states for total employment is in the Appendix.)
Meanwhile, Illinois manufacturing employees, like overall employment, are down. Since January 2019, Illinois manufacturing employees have fallen by 12,800, the nation’s 7th-worst performance, according to the BLS’ Current Employment Statistics Program.**
And as with overall employment, Texas and Florida crushed the rest of the nation in manufacturing. Since 2019, Texas has increased its manufacturing by 73,600 employees, Florida by 44,100. Georgia is up 29,000. Again, we show below the top and bottom 10 performers nationally.
************
The drop in employment in Illinois shouldn’t come as a surprise given the continued data that shows Illinois losing people to other states. As we reported last week and as the WSJ recently editorialized, the blue-state exodus continues:
- IRS migration data: Big blue states biggest losers of people, wealth. Big red states biggest winners. – A Wirepoints 50-state survey
- The Blue-State Wealth Exodus Continues – WSJ
It’s hard to see Illinois fixing its employment and population problems as long as our governor refuses to be honest about them.
*Note: Our analysis on the total employment numbers come from the BLS household survey, not the BLS payroll survey. The two employment measures differ in that the household survey counts the number of employed individuals, while the payroll survey counts the number of jobs. The distinction matters because someone with multiple jobs will be counted multiple times in the payroll survey, but only once in the household survey.
**Our analysis of manufacturing employees is based on the BLS payroll survey.
Appendix
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.
Pritzker one of the worst.
Pritzker and the Democratic Party of Illinois has a problem. For businesses to come to Illinois it need reasonable taxes, and educated workforce, a safe environment and a good standard of living.
But to stay in power, the Democratic Party needs a an uneducated voting block, a corrupt power base and lots of money to give to government unions that keep them in power.
The blacks are chasing out the businesses and people with their crime and not knowing how to act in a civilized society, and yes I am black. Why is everyone avoiding the main cause of businesses and people leaving, its the criminals from my black community and its a complete embarrassment having to watch this nonsense from my black community who are completely against taking any accountability for themselves whatsoever. People better wake up and start speaking the truth otherwise the black community is going to absolutely destroy this country and its pretty darn close to being destroyed.
I can’t disagree with you but providing a good education is the key to getting out of poverty and crime. My bet is that is the way you broke out. It existed and was working but instead of expanding, the program has been ended by the Democratic Party. The Invest in Kids program empowered parents to choose the right school for their children, leading to significant academic improvements. Low-income students in grades 3-8 using the tax-credit program outperformed public school peers in reading and math. High school students in the program had SAT reading proficiency rates nearly 20 percentage points… Read more »
jb is a bigger crook than bidumb.
Our Gov just found one more willing dupe. CNN is in the business of telling lies– way too many to mention. And too many people know it. They let their guests lie– no problem. And they don’t even mind being lied to. That’s why their ratings are so low they probably have no more than 18 more months to survive financially in their current format.
Watch, listen and learn how Pritzker spins the data to get an example of how his elaborations will be at the DNC. He will go on about how he turned Illinois into an EV auto manufacturing State, how safe the streets are with his gun control while at the same time eliminating cash bail, how Illinois is hospitably integrating the migrants into society and no doubt will include claims of balancing the budget while not telling the whole story on any of this. The press will toe his line with the thoughts of the Government funding “carrot” rather than face… Read more »
I want some of JB’s kool-aid!!
I think I’ve discovered the reason why most (D)’s are interviewed remotely…
If they were in studio their noses would poke out the eyes of the interviewer…🤥
Wirepoints spent a lot of effort pulling the numbers together. Although the data is out there, most on the states own websites, most of us don’t have the time to find the facts. The Dems read this site and they know. The facts are the facts yet the left lies and the media does not do its homework and call him out on it. Anyone who lives in Illinois knows there is a tsunami of red ink that is eventually going to sink the city first then the entire state. Its a sad fact but that is the result of… Read more »
Exactly. It took decades to reach this point. It will take decades to fix, and that turnaround can’t even start until the state hits rock bottom.
To make my point, ten Goons hate hearing the truth. They are the fat cat politicians and union leader that live off the middle class but the facts are the facts and Wirepoints is doing a great job of getting them in front of the public.
Pritzker is the poster child for: “How can you tell a politician is lying? His lips are moving.” Although for JB it would be “His lips are moving and he isn’t eating.”
Billionaire trust-fund silver-spooned adult-children in Illinois are gainfully employed – look, see, here I am, governor of Illinois.
Platinum-plated JB Pritzker has no idea whatsoever what life is like for average working-class Illinois citizen.
Wirepoints, time to dig out your old articles about “toilet-gate”, and forward to CNN.
Pritzker thinks he has great shot at getting on Democratic national ticket. His checkbook is out, pen ready, shades of Blago wiretaps, game on!
This was a particularly corrupt spring session where two bills passed the legislature that shore up the Democratic grip on election interference. Governor JB Pritzker has signed into law a comprehensive bill that touches on primary election fundraising, the electoral college, and the state’s voter registration database. I guess implementing HB2412 that Governor called an “Ethics Bill” and a “Dirty Trick” to keep Republican candidates off the ballot was not enough, A notable change in the law allows political parties to freely transfer unlimited funds to candidates during primary campaigns. This overturns previous limits imposed in 2009 under… Read more »
Yep, he’s using the typical Democrat Play book. Telling what to believe, instead of using your own eyes. They believe that if they keep saying it…everyone will believe them and not look any closer. Lying directly to your face.
Yeah, Trump is as honest as George Washington, isn’t he??
And don’t forget it!! TRUMP 2024
Fat Fredo is just like every other Democrat. They’re perfectly comfortable lying to you directly in your face, and without hesitation. The fact that people still vote Democrat shows the idiocy that exists in this country.
Hey, turn off Fox News. Go to the library. Read a lot of books, especially about history. Rethink your your ideas!
Forget the news….. just look at how rotten the country is doing and who the leaders are!!
Judging by the downvotes we know what the CTU parasites are doing this summer.
ABSOLUTELY……They say the truth hurts………..
Eating prime steaks and drinking fine wine while on their yacht on Lake Michigan would be my guess. None of those choice cuts. Save that for TPG and the other haters. Although they could be traveling Europe. I would highly recommend taking summers off if your employer allows it. Life is too short.
So you’re back to this?
I thought you would like that. Sometimes you’ve got to give the people what they want.
Sounds like you need to follow your own advice.
Just like Joe Biden, JB Pritzker seems to lie constantly about near everything. Why? Democrats are so used to the MSM bailing them out, and going along with their gaslighting.
Kudos to WP for exposing another ‘whopper’ by Pritzker.
Always lying constantly it never ends .
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story. I didn’t see JB on CNN, but I’m sure the interviewer pressed him on the unemployment rate in Illinois, which has been consistently high relative to other states and the national average. JB is nothing more than a self-promoting buffoon.
Come on, who you going to believe, Pritzker or Ted and Nick? Our wise governor says we’re in great shape.
Pritzker or as I like to call him, El Gordo
The fat one. Is a politician who will pi..
On your head and tell you it’s raining.
If you need advise though on a toilet bowl
He is your man.