August jobs report for Illinois: Manufacturing jobs drop by 2,200 in August, down 9,800 for 2015

Illinois lost 2,200 manufacturing jobs in August and is down nearly 10,000 on the year.

Illinois lost 2,200 factory jobs in August, according to today’s economic release from the Illinois Department of Employment Security. The report also revised Illinois’ July manufacturing losses downward to 800 jobs lost from 600 jobs lost. Illinois has received a steady stream of bad economic news in 2015, with factory employment falling in 7 out of 8 months, resulting in a loss of 9,800 factory jobs through August.

Illinois lost 900 payroll jobs on net in August, as several sectors shed jobs: manufacturing (-2,200); trade, transportation and utilities (-2,100); construction (-1,900); government (-1,400); information (-800); leisure and hospitality (-500); and mining (-100). Job gains came from: financial activities (+2,600); education and health services (+2,400); other services (+1,800); and professional and business services (+1,300). The August jobs numbers reflected the trend of Illinois’ losing blue-collar industrial jobs while gaining white-collar service jobs.

Illinois’ unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent from 5.8 percent in August, as the number of unemployed dwindled by 11,000 since July, and employment grew by 15,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ household survey.

The household survey, which asked respondents whether family members are working, shows that employment has only risen by 16,000 for 2015, while the workforce has shrunk by 23,000.

Illinois needs to turn the page on failed industrial policies and start a new chapter in its manufacturing story. The Land of Lincoln is the only Great Lakes state where government workers outnumber manufacturing workers and the only Great Lakes state to lose manufacturing jobs over the last three years. Other states in the region have added tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs.

Note: These comparisons with Great Lakes states run through June 2015 and do not include Illinois’ manufacturing job losses for the months of July and August.

The good news is Illinois’ manufacturing problems are solvable, if politicians are willing to embrace the right policy solutions. Unfortunately, the Illinois General Assembly has set these solutions aside to protect special interests that resist reform. In order to get Illinois’ manufacturing base booming again, the state needs:

• Reform to fix Illinois’ broken workers’ compensation system, which costs companies millions more per year than in neighboring states

• A property-tax freeze to cap extremely high property taxes that can now only be lowered through a corrupt appeals process

• Lawsuit reform to improve the state’s litigation climate, which ranks worst in the Midwest

• Local Right to Work for municipalities seeking to regain a competitive edge

• A reinvigorated industrial curriculum for high schools that want to offer their students training in skilled trades and manufacturing

The year began with hope for Illinois’ manufacturing sector, as Gov. Bruce Rauner put industrial policies at the top of his reform agenda. Since then, eight months have passed during which Illinois has lost 9,800 manufacturing jobs – and the General Assembly still has not voted on a single one of Rauner’s pieces of legislation dealing with industrial reforms. Illinois’ manufacturing sector deserves better from its representatives in Springfield, and manufacturing workers deserve better than to work in a state where policy problems keep their jobs in limbo.