- The 12-month forecast shows that Illinois is likely to experience an employment increase of 16,300 jobs by September 2019. The greatest increase is likely to occur in Education & health (10,400 more jobs).

- The state of Illinois now has a net gain of 139,700 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: 10/24/2018)

- Illinois added 2,800 jobs in September 2018. The sectors that gained jobs were Education & health (3,300 more jobs), Manufacturing (2,300 more jobs) and Construction (1,400 more jobs). The sectors that lost jobs in August in Illinois were Professional & business services (-2,500 less jobs), Other Services (-1,500), and Trade, transportation and utilities (-800 less jobs).

- In September, Illinois’s official unemployment rate was 4.1% while its shadow unemployment rate was 9.18%. To bring the two rates together, in other words bringing down shadow unemployment rate to 4.1%, another 354,400 jobs need to be created.

- The Nation added 134,000 jobs at a rate of 0.09% in September, compared with a revised 270,000-job gain in August 2018. There were growth in three sectors, namely Education & health (18,000 more jobs), Professional & business services (54,000 more jobs), Manufacturing (18,000) and Construction (23,000 more jobs).

- The RMW added 4,500 jobs in September after a 45,600-job gain in August 2018.

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

See the full report (Released: 10/24/2018)

- Illinois Rural area added 5,600 jobs at 0.75% this month, compared to a revised 600-job gain in August 2018. At the same time, Metro lost 2,800 jobs at -0.05% in September, compared to a revised 3,700-job loss in the previous month. Two out of ten MSAs posted positive growth. Consequently, the 2,800-job gain in Illinois was driven by increase in rural areas.

- The most remarkable upward move in September was recorded for Chicago (8th to 4th) and Decatur (9th to 5th). In the 12-month growth league table, Springfield remained in last place while Kankakee remained in the first place.

- In Chicago, Education & health had the greatest monthly job-gain among all sectors (2,500 more jobs) in September, while Trade, transportation and utilities had the greatest decline (3,500 less jobs) Since the job recovery resumed in January 2010 in Illinois, Kankakee has shown an average growth rate of 14.56%, which is the highest among all the IL MSAs; Bloomington-Normal has experienced the lowest average growth rate, -2.55%.

- The 12-month forecasts show that Chicago is likely to experience a 0.23% job gain by September 2019 (9,600 more jobs). The greatest 12-month growth in Chicago is likely to happen for Education & health (12,300 more jobs) but the greatest decline would be for Trade, transportation & utilities (-20,800).

See the full report (Released: 10/24/2018)

- The Chicago Business Activity Index (CBAI) decreased to 95.2 in July from 106.6 in June. The decrease is mainly attributed to the negative construction job growth and a decline in nationwide economic activities measured by the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI).

See the full report (Released: 09/18/2018)

- According to the forecast for August 2018, Bloomington-Normal, Davenport-Rock Island-Moline, Decatur, and Peoria are likely to perform worse over this period than Chicago. All the other MSAs will compare favorably to Chicago.

See the full report (Released: 10/24/2018)