- The 12-month forecast shows that Illinois is likely to experience an employment increase of 10,000 jobs by September 2020. The greatest increase is likely to occur in Education & health (11,500 more jobs).

- The state of Illinois now has a net gain of 204,800 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: 12/30/2019)

- Illinois gained 4,800 jobs in September 2019. The sectors that gained jobs were Information (300 more jobs), Trade, transportation & utilities (3,700 more jobs), Financial activities (700 more jobs). The sectors that lost jobs in September in Illinois were Manufacturing (1,000 less jobs), Education & health (900 less jobs), and Government (100 less jobs).

- In September, Illinois’s official unemployment rate was 3.9% while its shadow unemployment rate was 8.3%. To bring the two rates together, in other words bringing down shadow unemployment rate to 3.9%, another 292,800 jobs need to be created.

- The Nation added 180,000 jobs at a rate of 0.12% in September, compared with a revised 219,000-job gain in August 2019. There was a growth in three sectors, namely Leisure & hospitality (45,000 more jobs), Education & health (49,000 more jobs), and Professional & business services (37,000 more jobs).

- The RMW lost 7,000 jobs in September after a 4,800-job gain in August 2019.

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

See the full report (Released: 12/30/2019)

- Illinois Rural area gained 6,600 jobs at 0.88% this month, compared to a revised 3,300-job loss in August 2019. At the same time, Metro lost 1,800 jobs at 0.03% in September, compared to a revised 9,100-job loss in the previous month. Consequently, the 4,800-job gain in Illinois was mainly driven by mixed performances in all areas

- In Chicago, Financial activities had the greatest monthly job-gain among all sectors (1,000 more jobs) in September, while Education & health had the greatest decline (1,700 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 11.20%, which is the highest among all the IL MSAs; Bloomington-Normal has experienced the lowest average growth rate, -3.60%.

- The 12-month forecasts show that Chicago is likely to experience a 1.60% job loss by September 2020 (67,900 less jobs). The greatest 12-month growth in Chicago is likely to happen for Leisure & hospitality (8,700 more jobs) but the greatest decline would be for Information (1,700 less jobs).

See the full report (Released: 12/30/2019)

- The Chicago Business Activity Index (CBAI) increased to 95.5 in November from 90.4 in October. The increase is mainly attributed to an increase in nationwide economic activities measured by the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI)..

See the full report (Released: 01/22/2020)

- According to the forecast for August 2020, Bloomington-Normal, Champaign-Urbana, Rockford 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: 12/30/2019)