- The 12-month forecast shows that Illinois is likely to experience an employment increase of 61,800 jobs by January 2020. The greatest increase is likely to occur in Trade, transportation and utilities (28,700 more jobs).

- The state of Illinois now has a net gain of 191,100 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: 03/28/2019)

- Illinois added 26,700 jobs in January 2019. The sectors that gained jobs were Trade, transportation and utilities (9,400 more jobs), Leisure & hospitality (4,500 more jobs), and Construction (5,500 jobs). The sectors that lost jobs in Illinois were Other services (-600 less jobs), Information (-400) and Financial Activities (-1,500).

- In January, Illinois’s official unemployment rate was 4.3% while its shadow unemployment rate was 9.19%. To bring the two rates together, in other words bringing down shadow unemployment rate to 4.3%, another 354,400 jobs need to be created.

- The Nation added 311,000 jobs at a rate of 0.21% in January, compared with a revised 227,000-job gain in December 2018. There was growth in three sectors, namely Education & health (64,000 more jobs), Leisure & hospitality (89,000 more jobs), and Trade, transportation and utilities (54,000 more jobs).

- The RMW added 51,000 jobs in January after an 37,900-job gain in December 2018.

- The 12-month-ahead job recovery forecasts show that the future recovery rates in Illinois will increase for every sector except Information.

See the full report (Released: 03/28/2019)

- Illinois Rural area lost 3,200 jobs at -0.42% this month, compared to a revised 12,000-job gain in December 2018. At the same time, Metro added 29,900 jobs at 0.55% in January, compared to a revised 4,600-job loss in the previous month. Consequently, the 26,700-job gain in Illinois was mainly driven by increase metro area.

- The most remarkable upward move in January was recorded for Springfield (8th to 4th).

- In Chicago, Trade, transportation and utilities had the greatest monthly job-gain among all sectors (9,200 more jobs) in January, while Other Services 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 of 11.86%, which is the highest among all the IL MSAs; Bloomington-Normal has experienced the lowest average growth rate, -4.71%.

- The 12-month forecasts show that Chicago is likely to experience a 1.66% job gain by January 2020 (70,300 more jobs). The greatest 12-month growth in Chicago is likely to happen for Trade, transportation and utilities (42,600 more jobs) but the greatest decline would be for Information (-4,600).

See the full report (Released: 03/28/2019)

- The Chicago Business Activity Index (CBAI) increased to 98.1 in February from 95.2 in January. The increase is mainly attributed to positive manufacturing job growth and an improvement in retail sales.

See the full report (Released: 04/16/2019)

- According to the forecast for November 2018, Champaign-Urbana, Rockford and Kankakee are likely to perform better over this period than Chicago. All the other MSAs will compare worse to Chicago.

See the full report (Released: 02/09/2019)