- The 12-month forecast shows that Illinois is likely to experience an employment increase of 22,300 jobs by November 2019. The greatest increase is likely to occur in Education & health (15,300 more jobs).

- The state of Illinois now has a net gain of 151,300 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: 12/24/2018)

- Illinois added 5,900 jobs in November 2018. The sectors that gained jobs were Trade, transportation and utilities (1,000 more jobs), Education & health (2,700 more jobs), Professional & business services (4,100 jobs). The sectors that lost jobs in November in Illinois were Information (-1,600 less jobs), Manufacturing (-800) and Construction (-800).

- In November, Illinois’s official unemployment rate was 4.2% while its shadow unemployment rate was 8.97%. To bring the two rates together, in other words bringing down shadow unemployment rate to 4.2%, another 340,100 jobs need to be created.

- The Nation added 155,000 jobs at a rate of 0.10% in November, compared with a revised 238,000-job gain in October 2018. There was growth in three sectors, namely Education & health (34,000 more jobs), Professional & business services (32,000 more jobs), and Trade, transportation and utilities (53,000 more jobs).

- The RMW added 16,200 jobs in November after a 13,100-job gain in October 2018.

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

See the full report (Released: 12/24/2018)

- Illinois Rural area added 2,900 jobs at 0.38% this month, compared to a revised 12,300-job loss in October 2018. At the same time, Metro added 3,000 jobs at 0.06% in November, compared to a revised 19,100-job gain in the previous month. Consequently, the 5,900-job gain in Illinois was driven by increase in both metro and rural areas.

- The most remarkable upward move in November was recorded for Peoria (9th to 1st).

- In Chicago, Trade, transportation and utilities had the greatest monthly job-gain among all sectors (3,300 more jobs) in November, while Construction had the greatest decline (2,600 less jobs). Since the job recovery resumed in January 2010 in Illinois, Kankakee has shown an average growth rate of 13.90%, which is the highest among all the IL MSAs; Bloomington-Normal has experienced the lowest average growth rate, -2.44%.

- The 12-month forecasts show that Chicago is likely to experience a 0.41% job gain by November 2019 (17,241 more jobs). The greatest 12-month growth in Chicago is likely to happen for Trade, transportation and utilities (9,100 more jobs) but the greatest decline would be for Professional & business services (-7,000).

See the full report (Released: 12/24/2018)

- The Chicago Business Activity Index (CBAI) decreased to 98.9 in November from 104.0 in October. The increase is mainly attributed to negative manufacturing, and construction job growth and a decline in retail sales.

See the full report (Released: 01/15/2019)

- According to the forecast for October 2018, 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: 12/24/2018)