Regulatory regimes in Illinois often discourage workforce participation without enhancing public welfare. One Senate bill, however, would require regulators to demonstrate the necessity of new rules before imposing them on workers.
Seven metro areas across the state lost jobs over the month.
The state also saw a drop in the unemployment rate, but it wasn’t because people found jobs.
Three proposals that would ease occupational licensing restrictions have reached the House floor, passing unanimously out of committee.
Under Illinois law, defaulting on student loan debt could jeopardize one’s occupational license. But a Senate bill would protect indebted workers from displacement.
Revisions from the Bureau of Labor Statistics flipped Decatur’s jobs growth from negative to positive over the year, though the growth was meager.
Illinois’ metro areas added 11,300 jobs in February, while only one metro area lost jobs over the month. Despite strong employment growth from metro areas in February, Illinois is still far behind U.S. growth over the last 12 months.
As a looming U.S. Supreme Court decision could lift a federal ban on sports betting, state lawmakers hear testimony on whether Illinois should follow suit.
The country is enjoying a food truck boom, but overbearing regulations threaten the industry. According to a new study, Chicago’s regulatory burden is among the worst.
Madison and St. Clair counties both saw their populations decline from July 2016 to July 2017, thanks to outmigration – a problem the counties have been dealing with for years.
While Illinois outperformed the nation in terms of monthly employment growth for the first time since September 2017, Illinois payrolls have only increased half as fast as the rest of the nation in the past year.
Getting Illinois to grow again starts with getting those who remain to believe it’s possible. And even more, to believe it’s a state worth saving.
The Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro area witnessed population decline over the year, as did nearly every other metro area in Illinois.
As outmigration fuels population decline throughout the state, Cook County saw the largest numeric population loss of any county in the nation.