- The 12-month forecast shows that Illinois is likely to experience an employment increase 19,900 jobs by July 2018. The greatest increase is likely to occur in Professional & business services (23,900 more jobs).

- The state of Illinois now has a net gain of 63,800 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:8/28/2017)

- Illinois added 2,100 jobs in July 2017. The sectors that gained jobs were Professional & business services (6,200 more jobs), Leisure & hospitality (4,000 more jobs) and Government (1,800 more jobs). The sectors that lost jobs in July in Illinois were Education & health (3,200 less jobs), Trade, transportation & utilities (3,700 less job) and Construction (1,800 less jobs).

- In July, Illinois’s official unemployment rate was 4.8% while its shadow unemployment rate was 10.22%. To bring the two rates together, in other words bringing down shadow unemployment rate to 4.6%, another 390,300 jobs need to be created.

- The Nation added 209,000 jobs at a rate of 0.14% in July, compared with a revised 231,000-job gain in June 2017. There was growth in three sectors, namely Leisure & hospitality (62,000 more jobs), Professional & business services (49,000 more jobs) and Education & health (54,000 more jobs).

- The RMW added 25,900 jobs in July after a revised 44,800-job gain in June 2017.

- The 12-month-ahead job recovery forecasts show that the future recovery rates in Illinois will decrease for Construction, Trade, transportation & utilities and Other services.

See the full report (Released: 8/28/2017)

- Illinois Rural area lost 600 jobs at -0.09% this month, compared to a revised 9,100-job loss in June 2017. At the same time, Metro added 2,700 jobs at 0.05% in July, compared to a revised 15,500-job gain in the previous month. Five out of ten MSAs posted positive growth. Consequently, the 2,100-job loss in Illinois was mainly driven by increase in the Metro area.

- In the monthly MSA growth league table, the most remarkable upward move in July was recorded for Peoria (9th to 2nd). In the 12-month growth league table, Decatur dropped to the last place while Springfield climbed to the first place.

- In Chicago, Leisure & hospitality had the greatest monthly job-gain among all sectors (1,900 more jobs) in July, while Education & health had the greatest decline (1,400 less jobs). Since the job recovery resumed in January 2010 in Illinois, Chicago Upstate has shown an average growth rate of 11.96%, which is the highest among all the IL MSAs; Decatur has experienced the lowest average growth rate, -1.49%.

- The 12-month forecasts show that Chicago is likely to experience a 1.72% job gain by July 2018 (71,700 more jobs). The greatest 12-month growth in Chicago is likely to happen for Professional & business services (42,300 more jobs at 5.49%) but the greatest decline would be for Construction (1,000 less jobs at -0.67%).

See the full report (Released: 8/28/2017)

The Chicago Business Activity Index (CBAI) increased to 97.1 in July from 96.9 in June. The rise is mainly attributed to the positive non-manufacturing job growth in the Chicago area.

See the full report (Released: 09/18/2017)

According to the forecast for November 2017, Davenport-Rock Island-Moline is likely to perform less well over this period than Chicago. All the other MSAs will compare favorably to Chicago.

See the full report (Released: 12/25/2016)