- The 12-month forecast shows that Illinois is likely to experience an employment increase of 44,100 jobs by April 2020. The greatest increase is likely to occur in Education & health (18,800 more jobs).

- The state of Illinois now has a net gain of 197,100 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: 06/26/2019)

- Illinois gained 20,900 jobs in April 2019. The sectors that gained jobs were Construction (7,500 more jobs), Leisure & hospitality (7,300 more jobs), Professional & business services (7,100). The sectors that lost jobs in April in Illinois were Information (-900 less jobs), Manufacturing (1,500 less jobs), and Trade, transportation & utilities (800 les jobs).

- In April, Illinois’s official unemployment rate was 4.4% while its shadow unemployment rate was 9.1%. To bring the two rates together, in other words bringing down shadow unemployment rate to 4.4%, another 346,000 jobs need to be created.

- The Nation added 224,000 jobs at a rate of 0.15% in April, compared with a revised 153,000-job gain in March 2019. There was a growth in four sectors, namely Construction (30,000 more jobs), Education & health (73,000 more jobs), Professional & business services (62,000 more jobs).

- The RMW added 13,400 jobs in April after a 7,300-job gain in March 2019.

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

See the full report (Released: 06/26/2019)

- Illinois Rural area added 9,200 jobs at 1.23% this month, compared to a revised 3,000-job gain in March 2019. At the same time, Metro added 11,700 jobs at 0.22% in April, compared to a revised 9,100-job loss in the previous month. Consequently, the 20,900-job gain in Illinois was mainly driven by a job increase in all areas.

- In Chicago, Professional & business services had the greatest monthly job-gain among all sectors (11,600 more jobs) in April, while Manufacturing had the greatest decline (1,100 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 11.46%, which is the highest among all the IL MSAs; Bloomington-Normal has experienced the lowest average growth rate, -4.06%.

- The 12-month forecasts show that Chicago is likely to experience a 0.06% job gain by April 2020 (2,500 more jobs). The greatest 12-month growth in Chicago is likely to happen for Leisure & hospitality (9,200 more jobs) but the greatest decline would be for Manufacturing (-10,800).

See the full report (Released: 06/26/2019)

- The Chicago Business Activity Index (CBAI) decreased to 89.2 in May from 95.2 in April. The decrease is mainly attributed to negative nonmanufacturing and construction job growth and a sharp decline in retail sales.

See the full report (Released: 07/17/2019)

- According to the forecast for March 2020, Bloomington-Normal, Champaign-Urbana, Davenport-Rock Island-Moline, Peoria and Rockford 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: 06/26/2019)