- The 12-month forecast shows that Illinois is likely to experience an employment decrease of 10,000 jobs by November 2020. The greatest increase is likely to occur in Education & health (14,500 more jobs).

- The state of Illinois now has a net gain of 199,600 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: 02/05/2020)

- Illinois lost 17,200 jobs in November 2019. The only sector that gained jobs was Other Services (800 more jobs. The sectors that lost jobs in November in Illinois were Construction (2,800 less jobs), Information (700 less jobs), and Professional & business services (6,600 less jobs).

- In October, Illinois’s official unemployment rate was 3.8% 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 291,700 jobs need to be created.

- The Nation added 266,000 jobs at a rate of 0.18% in November, compared with a revised 156,000-job gain in October 2019. There was a growth in three sectors, namely Information (13,000 more jobs), Manufacturing (54,000 more jobs), and Construction (74,000 more jobs).

- The RMW gained 34,200 jobs in November after a 31,600-job loss in October 2019.

- The 12-month-ahead job recovery forecasts show that the future recovery rates in Illinois will decrease for every sector except Financial activities, Leisure & hospitality and Other services.

See the full report (Released: 02/05/2020)

- Illinois Rural area gained 5,700 jobs at 0.77% this month, compared to a revised 7,400-job gain in October 2019. At the same time, Metro lost 22,900 jobs at 0.02% in November, compared to a revised 15,700-job loss in the previous month. Consequently, the 17,200-job loss in Illinois was mainly driven by mixed performances in all areas.

- In Chicago, Leisure & hospitality had the greatest monthly job-gain among all sectors (5,400 more jobs) in November, while Construction had the greatest decline (6,300 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 10.93%, which is the highest among all the IL MSAs; Bloomington-Normal has experienced the lowest average growth rate, -3.57%.

- The 12-month forecasts show that Chicago is likely to experience a 1.86% job loss by November 2020 (79,100 less jobs). The greatest 12-month growth in Chicago is likely to happen for Leisure & hospitality (6,300 more jobs) but the greatest decline would be for Construction (1,900 less jobs).

See the full report (Released: 02/05/2020)

- 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 October 2020, Bloomington-Normal, Champaign-Urbana, Decatur, 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: 02/05/2020)