- The 12-month forecast shows that Illinois is likely to experience an employment increase of 21,100 jobs by August 2019. The greatest increase is likely to occur in Professional and business services (18,400 more jobs).

- The state of Illinois now has a net gain of 134,800 jobs since the beginning of the recession in December 2007. Given Illinois’ economic performance of late, recovery to the prior peak (adjusted for changes in labor force participation and population growth) recorded in 2000 within five years would seem feasible.

See the full report (Released: 09/24/2018)

- Illinois lost 5,200 jobs in August 2018. The sectors that gained jobs were Financial activities (400 more jobs), Trade, transportation & utilities (400 more jobs) and Professional & business services (900 more jobs). The sectors that lost jobs in July in Illinois were Leisure & hospitality (-3,600 less jobs), Education & health (-1,300), and Construction (-1,200 less jobs).

- In April, Illinois’s official unemployment rate was 4.1% while its shadow unemployment rate was 9.17%. To bring the two rates together, in other words bringing down shadow unemployment rate to 4.1%, another 353,700 jobs need to be created.

- The Nation added 201,000 jobs at a rate of 0.13% in August, compared with a revised 147,000-job gain in July 2018. There were growth in three sectors, namely Education & health (53,000 more jobs), Professional & business services (53,000 more jobs) and Trade, transportation & utilities (37,000 more jobs).

- The RMW added 31,500 jobs in August after a 19,800-job gain in July 2018.

- The 12-month-ahead job recovery forecasts show that the future recovery rates in Illinois will increase for every sector except Manufacturing, Information, Trade, transportation & utilities, and Other services.

See the full report (Released: 09/24/2018)

- Illinois Rural area added 1,700 jobs at 0.23% this month, compared to a revised 4,600-job loss in July 2018. . At the same time, Metro lost 6,900 jobs at -0.13% in August, compared to a revised 4,600-job gain in the previous month. Six out of ten MSAs posted positive growth. Consequently, the 5,200-job loss in Illinois was driven by decrease in metro areas.

- The most remarkable upward move in August was recorded for Davenport-Rock Island-Moline (8th to 1st). In the 12-month growth league table, Springfield dropped to the last place while Kankakee remained in the first place.

- In Chicago, Education & health had the greatest monthly job-gain among all sectors (800 more jobs) in August, while Leisure & hospitality had the greatest decline (2,300 less jobs Since the job recovery resumed in January 2010 in Illinois, Kankakee has shown an average growth rate of 14.50%, which is the highest among all the IL MSAs; Bloomington-Normal has experienced the lowest average growth rate, -2.24%.

- The 12-month forecasts show that Chicago is likely to experience a 0.82% job gain by August 2019 (34,500 more jobs). The greatest 12-month growth in Chicago is likely to happen for Professional and business services (39,300 more jobs) but the greatest decline would be for Trade, transportation & utilities (-9,600).

See the full report (Released: 09/24/2018)

- The Chicago Business Activity Index (CBAI) decreased to 95.2 in July from 106.6 in June. The decrease is mainly attributed to the negative construction job growth and a decline in nationwide economic activities measured by the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI).

See the full report (Released: 09/18/2018)

- According to the forecast for July 2018, Davenport-Rock Island-Moline, Decatur, and Peoria are likely to perform worse over this period than Chicago. All the other MSAs will compare favorably to Chicago.

See the full report (Released: 09/24/2018)