U.S. recovery jumps forward, Illinois falls back

The U.S. hit a major milestone in September. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics household survey, the number of Americans working has finally surpassed pre-recession levels. In addition, the national jobless rate fell to 5.9 percent to 6.1 percent. The number of Illinoisans working, however, is far from recovery. There are now 220,000 more...

The U.S. hit a major milestone in September. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics household survey, the number of Americans working has finally surpassed pre-recession levels. In addition, the national jobless rate fell to 5.9 percent to 6.1 percent.

The number of Illinoisans working, however, is far from recovery. There are now 220,000 more Americans working than when the Great Recession began, but 300,000 fewer Illinoisans. Illinois’ record stands as the nation’s largest employment gap and represents a stunning loss of opportunity for those in the Land of Lincoln.

Illinois’ recovery has been dramatically slower than the national recovery, which itself has been unimpressive. Even though a record number of Americans are now out of the workforce, the U.S. recovery has left Illinois in the rearview mirror.

Without serious economic reform, Illinois likely has several years to go before the number of people working matches the count of January 2008 – nearly seven years ago.

The number of people working is one measure of recovery. Another measure of recovery the monthly BLS report captures is the number of payroll jobs.

U.S. nonfarm payrolls added 248,000 jobs in September, against consensus expectations of 215,000. This was a strong month for payroll jobs, and propels the U.S. recovery far beyond the Illinois recovery.

For the U.S. as a whole, the number of jobs lost during the recession has been regained, according to BLS’s business establishment survey. The U.S. has 1 million more jobs today than in January 2008, the pre-recession peak.

Illinois, on the other hand, is far from recovery by this measure as well. The Prairie State is still down 157,000 jobs from pre-recession levels, the biggest jobs gap in the entire country. At the current pace of job creation, Illinois is still several years from recovery.