- The 12-month forecast shows that Illinois is likely to experience an employment increase of 12,500 jobs by May 2020. The greatest increase is likely to occur in Education & health (15,000 more jobs).

- The state of Illinois now has a net gain of 192,200 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: 07/20/2019)

- Illinois lost 2,400 jobs in May 2019. The sectors that gained jobs were Education & Health (2,100 more jobs), Other services (400 more jobs), Manufacturing (500 more jobs). The sectors that lost jobs in May in Illinois were Construction (-2,000 less jobs), Information (600 less jobs), and Financial activities (1,300 les jobs).

- In May, Illinois’s official unemployment rate was 4.4% while its shadow unemployment rate was 9.0%. To bring the two rates together, in other words bringing down shadow unemployment rate to 4.4%, another 342,000 jobs need to be created.

- The Nation added 75,000 jobs at a rate of 0.05% in May, compared with a revised 224,000-job gain in April 2019. There was a growth in three sectors, namely Leisure & hospitality (26,000 more jobs), Professional & business services (33,000 more jobs), Education & health (27,000 more jobs).

- The RMW lost 10,800 jobs in May after a 10,900-job gain in April 2019.

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

See the full report (Released: 07/20/2019)

- Illinois Rural area lost 9,100 jobs at 1.21% this month, compared to a revised 3,100-job gain in April 2019. At the same time, Metro added 6,700 jobs at 0.12% in May, compared to a revised 15,300-job lost in the previous month. Consequently, the 2,400-job lost in Illinois was mainly driven by mixed performances in all areas.

- In Chicago, Professional & business services had the greatest monthly job-gain among all sectors (1,400 more jobs) in May, while Construction had the greatest decline (2,600 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 11.53%, which is the highest among all the IL MSAs; Bloomington-Normal has experienced the lowest average growth rate, -3.32%.

- The 12-month forecasts show that Chicago is likely to experience a 0.47% job gain by May 2020 (19,800 more jobs). The greatest 12-month growth in Chicago is likely to happen for Leisure & hospitality (14,000 more jobs) but the greatest decline would be for Information (-4,400).

See the full report (Released: 07/20/2019)

- The Chicago Business Activity Index (CBAI) increased to 92.1 in June from 89.2 in May. The increase is mainly attributed to positive manufacturing, nonmanufacturing and construction job growth.

See the full report (Released: 08/20/2019)

- According to the forecast for April 2020, Bloomington-Normal, Champaign-Urbana Rockford and Springfield 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: 07/20/2019)