- The 12-month forecast shows that Illinois is likely to experience an employment decrease of 12,700 jobs by March 2021. The greatest increase is likely to occur in Education & health (8,100 more jobs).

- The state of Illinois now has a net gain of 105,800 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: 05/06/2020)

- Illinois lost 34,100 jobs in March 2020. The only sector that gained jobs was Government (1,000 more jobs). The sectors that lost jobs in March in Illinois were Leisure & hospitality (15,000 less jobs), Professional & business services (7,500 less jobs), and Information (600 less jobs).

- In March, Illinois’s official unemployment rate was 4.6% while its shadow unemployment rate was 11.2%. To bring the two rates together, in other words bringing down shadow unemployment rate to 4.6%, another 487,300 jobs need to be created.

- The Nation lost 701,000 jobs at a rate of 0.46% in March, compared with a revised 275,000-job gain in February 2020. There was a growth in two sectors, namely Information (2,000 more jobs) and Government (12,000 more jobs).

- The RMW lost 117,600 jobs in March after a 14,700-job gain in February 2020.

- The 12-month-ahead job recovery forecasts show that the future recovery rates in Illinois will increase only for Financial activities and Leisure & hospitality, all the other sectors are likely to experience a recovery rate decrease.

See the full report (Released: 05/06/2020)

- Illinois Rural area gained 13,200 jobs at 1.81% this month, compared to a revised 8,100-job loss in February 2020. At the same time, Metro lost 47,300 jobs at 0.88% in March, compared to a revised 3,300-job lost in the previous month. Consequently, the 34,100-job loss in Illinois was mainly driven by mixed performances in all areas.

- In Chicago, Other services had the greatest monthly job-gain among all sectors (1,100 more jobs) in March, while Professional & business services had the greatest decline (13,400 less jobs). Since the job recovery resumed in January 2010 in Illinois, Chicago has shown an average growth rate over the 2010-2020 period of 10.14%, which is the highest among all the IL MSAs; Decatur has experienced the lowest average growth rate, -3.37%.

- The 12-month forecasts show that Chicago is likely to experience a -1.26% job gain by March 2021 (52,900 less jobs). The greatest 12-month growth in Chicago is likely to happen for Education & health (10,400 more jobs) but the greatest decline would be for Manufacturing (9,000 less jobs).

See the full report (Released: 05/06/2020)

- The Chicago Business Activity Index (CBAI) decreased to 93.1 in December from 94.6 in November. The decrease is mainly attributed to negative manufacturing and construction job growth.

See the full report (Released: 04/21/2020)

-  According to the forecast for February 2021, Bloomington-Normal, Champaign-Urbana, 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: 05/06/2020)