- The 12-month forecast shows that Illinois is likely to experience an employment increase of 38,100 jobs by May 2019. The greatest increase is likely to occur in Education & health (14,300 more jobs).

- The state of Illinois now has a net gain of 123,700 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: 06/28/2018)

- Illinois added 8,600 jobs in May 2018. The sectors that gained jobs were Education & health (3,500 more jobs), Government (2,600 more jobs) and Financial Activities (2,100 more jobs). The sectors that lost jobs in May in Illinois were Manufacturing (-100 less jobs), Leisure & hospitality (-800), and Information (-900 less jobs).

- In April, Illinois’s official unemployment rate was 4.3% while its shadow unemployment rate was 9.21%. To bring the two rates together, in other words bringing down shadow unemployment rate to 4.6%, another 356,400 jobs need to be created.

- The Nation added 223,000 jobs at a rate of 0.15% in May, compared with a revised 159,000-job gain in April 2018. There were growth in three sectors, namely Education & health (39,000 more jobs), Professional & business services (31,000 more jobs) and P Trade, transportation & utilities (53,000 more jobs).

- The RMW lost 37,400 jobs in May after a revised 19,300-job loss in April 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: 06/28/2018)

- Illinois Rural area lost 4,300 jobs at -0.57% this month, compared to a revised 3,500-job gain in April 2018. At the same time, Metro added 12,900 jobs at 0.24% in May, compared to a revised 900-job loss in the previous month. Nine out of ten MSAs posted positive growth. Consequently, the 4,700-job gain in Illinois was driven by increase in metro areas.

- The most remarkable upward move in May were recorded for Bloomington-Normal (7th to 1st). In the 12-month growth league table, Springfield remained in the last place while Kankakee remained in the first place.

- In Chicago, financial activities had the greatest monthly job-gain among all sectors (2,300 more jobs) in May, while Information had the greatest decline (400 less jobs). Since the job recovery resumed in January 2010 in Illinois, Chicago Upstate has shown an average growth rate of 11.55%, which is the highest among all the IL MSAs; Bloomington-Normal has experienced the lowest average growth rate, -2.07%.

- The 12-month forecasts show that Chicago is likely to experience a 1.39% job gain by May 2019 (58,100 more jobs). The greatest 12-month growth in Chicago is likely to happen for Education & health (21,100 more jobs) but the greatest decline would be for Information (-3,000).

See the full report (Released: 06/28/2018)

The Chicago Business Activity Index (CBAI) increased to 101.6 in April from 97.2 in April. The increase is mainly attributed to the positive manufacturing and nonmanufacturing job growth and an improvement in expected retail sales.

See the full report (Released: 07/18/2018)

 According to the forecast for April 2018, Rockford and Springfield are likely to perform better over this period than Chicago. All the other MSAs will compare less favorably to Chicago.

See the full report (Released: 06/11/2018)