By: Nick Binotti and Ted Dabrowski
Job growth is good, unless it’s the government doing all the hiring. Unfortunately, that’s the situation in Illinois.
A Wirepoints’ analysis of the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows Illinois was able to eke out a gain of 17,100 jobs over the last 12 months, but only because government job gains offset the state’s private sector job losses. Illinois added nearly 29,000 government jobs since February of last year, while the state notched nearly 12,000 private sector job losses.
That disparity reflects the failed priorities of Illinois, where obsession with government spending – on migrants, green energy, Medicaid, education and much more – fuels a larger government workforce at the expense of the private sector. Ordinary businesses and taxpayers have to pay for all that government spending, which squeezes out private sector hiring and investment.
A look at private sector job growth across the country validates the above claims. We subtracted government jobs from the overall payroll numbers of every state and it revealed a stark fact. Illinois ranked second-worst nationally for private sector job performance over the last year.
Illinois lost 11,700 private sector jobs, with only Oregon performing worse. Only four states nationwide lost jobs.
Illinois’ focus on government jobs contrasts with dynamic states like Florida and Texas, which tax less and spend less overall. They both created hundreds of thousands of private sector jobs in the past year.
That offers a two-fold boon for those states. Not only do they become more wealthy and productive, but more people gainfully employed means less people dependent on government programs.
The more money that’s left in the private sector means more investment and more jobs. It’s a positive spiral.
Illinois, in contrast, is suffering the exact opposite phenomenon.
It’s not just the problem of government job growth in Illinois. It’s also the problem of job growth in health care and social assistance jobs, much of it government controlled and government subsidized. Over the last year, that sector grew by 23,300 jobs.
That’s not surprising given the massive expansion of Illinoisans dependent on government healthcare. Last year there were a record 3.8 million Illinoisans enrolled in Medicaid – nearly a million more compared to before the pandemic. The bigger the number of dependents, the more government workers needed to handle them.
On top of that, the state has spent at least $1 billion on illegal immigrant healthcare costs. Add to that the hundreds of millions more spent for migrant support programs, including welcoming centers and legal services, and it becomes easy to understand why government-related jobs are growing.
Much of the same can be said of spending on homelessness, DEI initiatives, mandates in education and other social spending programs.
We end this piece by highlighting the performance of each major jobs sector over the last 12 months. If Illinois ever wants to have growth and lasting prosperity, our future leaders will have to focus on real private sector job creation – the productive kind.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Illinois has more educators, less students than ever, yet officials complain about a ‘teacher shortage’
- Chicago mayor wants $1 billion more for schools even though 43% of CPS teachers are chronically absent
- Negligence or something more? Gov. Pritzker’s $827 million in taxpayer subsidies for Rivian.
- Don’t fall for the “progressive-income-tax-for-property-tax-relief” tax swap referendum
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.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
That bar chart is especially obscene when you consider that IL is the most government-heavy employer in the country. Instead of consolidating offices and shrinking staffs to gain efficiencies, it increased its staffing by 28.8K people. This is yet another example of many on abuse of taxpayer funds.
Remember that government has no money. The funds they expend for everything is extorted from the private sector in the form of taxes. When the private sector shrinks and the government grows, the result is less money in the private sector to improve the economy. The government can’t improve the economy because they don’t produce anything. They are net looters. If you want an example of this, look at the Great Depression. FDR’s New Deal deepened and elongated the depression because of deficit spending based on the failed Keansian economic model. Without the New Deal, the depression would have ended… Read more »
I sincerely hope that anyone following WP, and still in Illinois, at the very least has an exit plan. If you are staying for a job, have you even looked outside of Illinois for comparable employment? If you are staying for family, wouldn’t it be better to lead them to a better place? Do you really want your kids or grandkids to grow up in Illinois? Do you really want your kids or grandkids to stay in Illinois because they love you and feel responsible for you as you grow older? I have to wonder sometimes if Illinois WP followers… Read more »
People love to have others affirm their life decisions. They likewise don’t want to affirm to others that maybe they made a mistake because that erases that feeling of brilliance for both people. In short, what do you expect when you read or hear such statements from those who have chosen to leave their long-time home in IL? Few have enough self-confidence to want to reveal their dumbass decisions openly. Surely you should to filter your thoughts accordingly to ponder such things at the very least.
I seriously doubt anyone that left Illinois feels it was a “dumbass decision”, unless they foolishly moved someplace equally bad.
A few years back one of the legacy T.V. channels interviewed folks who had moved away from Chicago out of IL – the overwhelming response was ‘We should not have waited so long to move’
Sure, but you haven’t a clue as to how many they choose to interview that were not shown on TV for one reason or another. Then, maybe its equally true that the TV clip had a built-in biaes whereby they chose which interviews they liked well enough to air and denied that kind of exposures to others of a different viewpoint. Finally, reread my original posting above and ponder the message there. Not all spoken word is truthful or even representative of deeper truths.
I can’t find the clip, but the TV station went to the Nashville area to interview couples who had left Chicago – the profiles appeared to be younger, upwardly mobile professionals, who owned homes in the nicer area of town so had paid significant local and state taxes in Chicago. None regretted moving to TN and Nashville, and most said their only regret was not moving sooner.
There you have it James. An interview with a few couples that moved to Nashville. That proves that everyone feels the same way.
Sure, we all know a half-dozen interviews having the same message the receptor believes easily enough quickly becomes “everybody says” to that individual. Few would ponder that contrary viewpoints may have been purposely shelved.
Doesn’t it occur to your “smell test” that the clip interviewers likely had an agenda to promote TN and maybe Nashville especially as a desirable place to live? It seems to me that’s the case because that area is their audience and the reason for their profitable existence. No media outlet is likely going to turn local people away purposely, and that’s what negative interviews would be doing to that local economy. If you know that the clip was made by some IL media outlet different logic would apply there as to their motives, but you can bet your bippy… Read more »
The TV stations was reporting on a notable trend of outbound migration – Of course this type of investigative reporting by legacy media isn’t done anymore in Chicago or IL has it doesn’t fit the Democrat narrative that sky high taxes and militant public employee unions are good. I challenge you to come up with the research of those who left, and then came back to support your claims.
Surprising as it may seem I’m not running a company where I can dispatch a crew to fully respond to your request in the detail it deserves. I’m responding as an individual and no more than that. You can take my thoughts seriously or not. It’s in your court to follow through if you so choose. Believe whatever your intellect and predispositions allow you to believe.
Thanks, but I prefer to be objective and look at facts and data.
Great, now all you have to do is ponder their ultimate value. Things don’t always mean what they seem to mean at first thought.
If you have facts and data for your claims, please present them.
I have a nephew that moved from MI (equaly as bad as IL) to Tenn………built a home and is very happy.
There ya go: “everybody” says so.
Now now……don’t be jealous cause you are stuck here!
Doubt all your want, but the fact is that you don’t live in their minds. They are not you, and you are not they.
No doubt that there are certainly less expensive places to live than Illinois. The Illinois government make up is corrupt and should be changed. But, decisions like this shouldn’t use price only as a decision making point. There are other factors that should be included such as job, family, culture, holidays, personal occasions, etc. Things that are important to you. It is different for everyone. I have looked at relocating (TN, FL, TX) and find that there are certainly less expensive places to live that would reduce my costs and extend retirement funds. Still on the fence. We’ll see.
This way is the fast way to failure.
The State is broke and they are spending more money hiring new employees with benefits for life.
The Medicaid figure should be very alarming – so many not paying their way. A sure sign of a weak economy.
Yes a sign of the weak economy but also a sign that state attracts plenty of people outside of the workforce and in need of government benefits. Virtually everyone in the underground economy is on medicaid. A UCLA study from 2019 found that 1/3rd of all hispanics and 2/3rds of all hispanic children in the state are on medicaid. Think about that, 66% of hispanic children are getting free healthcare, deplorable, and you’re paying for it! And this was BEFORE the illegal immigration crisis bringing 10,000,000 new migrants to America! We are creating a second, permanent underclass of poor people,… Read more »
It’s been a Democrat strategy for decades now to ‘grow the Plantation’, i.e. get people dependent on monthly transfer payments and taxpayer funded benefits thinking they will be captive votes. To some degree it has worked – look at all the loafers who knee-jerk vote Democrat. Democrats very rarely are concerned about the private economy or private job growth, unless cronyism is involved. You will find very few if any Democrats who are Austrian based economists, rather they always support Government spending as the main means to increase GDP. When Keynesian was proved to be complete rubbish, Democrats invented ‘Modern… Read more »
Pritzker will trumpet this as a huge success. We’re growing jobs in Illinois! When Biden Covid bucks run out, which is about to happen, the government entities that have been balancing their budgets with free money from Slomo Joe are going to face some tough choices, like firing people. Remember, Joe is the one who wanted to hire 85,000 IRS agents as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. You can’t make this stuff up. Well, Democrats can.
Fire Pritzer and his overpaid staff…………if only