- The 12-month forecast shows that Illinois is likely to experience an employment increase of 5,500 jobs by July 2020. The greatest increase is likely to occur in Leisure & hospitality and (13,500 more jobs).

- The state of Illinois now has a net gain of 204,100 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: 10/15/2019)

- Illinois lost 400 jobs in July 2019. The sectors that gained jobs were Education & health (3,900 more jobs), Leisure & hospitality (700 more jobs), Government (600 more jobs). The sectors that lost jobs in July in Illinois were Other Services (1,600 less jobs), Information (300 less jobs), and Professional & business services (1,900 less jobs).

- In July, Illinois’s official unemployment rate was 4.2% while its shadow unemployment rate was 8.7%. To bring the two rates together, in other words bringing down shadow unemployment rate to 4.2%, another 319,300 jobs need to be created.

- The Nation added 159,000 jobs at a rate of 0.11% in July, compared with a revised 178,000-job gain in June 2019. There was a growth in three sectors, namely Education & health (71,000 more jobs), Financial activities (20,000 more jobs), and Government (28,000 more jobs).

- The RMW gained 3,600 jobs in July after a 18,300-job lost in June 2019.

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

See the full report (Released: 10/15/2019)

- Illinois Rural area lost 4,800 jobs at 0.65% this month, compared to a revised 6,800-job loss in June 2019. At the same time, Metro added 4,400 jobs at 0.08% in July, compared to a revised 14,400-job gain in the previous month. Consequently, the 400-job loss in Illinois was mainly driven by mixed performances in all areas.

- In Chicago, Leisure & hospitality had the greatest monthly job-gain among all sectors (3,500 more jobs) in July, while Professional & business services had the greatest decline (4,800 less jobs). Since the job recovery resumed in January 2010 in Illinois, Chicago has shown an average growth rate over the 2010-2019 period of 11.63%, which is the highest among all the IL MSAs; Bloomington-Normal has experienced the lowest average growth rate, -3.45%.

- The 12-month forecasts show that Chicago is likely to experience a 2.02% job gain by July 2020 (31,000 more jobs). The greatest 12-month growth in Chicago is likely to happen for Leisure & hospitality (23,900 more jobs) but the greatest decline would be for Information (100 more jobs).

See the full report (Released: 10/15/2019)

- The Chicago Business Activity Index (CBAI) increased to 96.6 in July from 91.9 in June. The increase is mainly attributed to positive manufacturing, construction job growth, and an improvement in expected retail sales.

See the full report (Released: 09/16/2019)

- According to the forecast for June 2020, Bloomington-Normal, Rockford, Springfield and Kankakee are likely to perform better over this period than Chicago. All the other MSAs will fare less well than Chicago.

See the full report (Released: 10/15/2019)