Jobs + Growth

Trump can help save Chicago manufacturing jobs by taking on sugar tariffs

Chicago and Illinois have plenty of their own problems on the manufacturing front, with issues such as high property taxes and workers’ compensation costs driving production facilities to other states. But U.S. trade policy regarding sugar isn’t helping matters. For each one sugar growing and harvesting job saved through high U.S. sugar tariffs, nearly three confectionery manufacturing jobs are lost, according to the International Trade Administration.

By Michael Lucci

Illinois House fails to override bill tying prevailing wage to union rates

The proposed legislation would have hiked costs for taxpayers and undermined market forces, all to benefit special interests.

By Madelyn Harwood

Madigan spokesman, trial bar peddle myths about workers’ compensation

Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan’s spokesman, Steve Brown, has repeatedly implied that Illinois insurance companies are hoarding cost savings. However, this couldn't be happening unless insurance companies were colluding in violation of the principle of antitrust laws, and there's no evidence they are. Illinois trial lawyers have echoed Brown's sentiments, but they don't seem to see evidence of antitrust violations either given that they haven't brought lawsuits against insurance companies for violating federal antitrust law.

By Michael Lucci

McDonald’s counters Fight for $15 with automation nationwide

Calls for a minimum-wage hike nationwide and in Illinois are increasingly met with businesses’ use of technology to cut costs.

Village of Barrington to resist Cook County minimum wage hike

The northwest suburb of Barrington passed an ordinance to allow local businesses to forgo Cook County’s minimum wage hike, which has the potential to be devastating for jobs in the county.

Workers’ compensation for state, county and municipal workers costs Illinois taxpayers $400 million per year

Workers’ compensation is a significant cost to Illinois taxpayers and drains scarce tax dollars from government coffers. Political and business leaders often view workers’ compensation as a costly regulation that affects private-sector investment and employment in Illinois.[1] This description is accurate yet incomplete. The same heavy costs imposed on private-sector employers[2] are also imposed on...

By Michael Lucci

Illinois lost 80,000 millennials between 2011-2015

Millennial out-migration from the Land of Lincoln is worse than all its neighboring states.

By Madelyn Harwood

October BLS jobs report: Illinois has region’s heaviest manufacturing job losses in 2015 and 2016

Since the beginning of 2015, Illinois has lost 14,100 manufacturing jobs.

By Michael Lucci

Home-sharing brings out the best in us

New Airbnb regulations pose a serious problem for Chicagoans.

By Austin Berg

Federal tax changes could pressure Illinois to repeal death tax

A repeal of the federal estate tax would make it imperative that Illinois get rid of its own state death tax to avoid losing even more residents and income to other states.

By Michael Lucci

Local worker freedom law upheld in Kentucky, making worker freedom more likely for Illinois

Illinois may soon be surrounded by Right-to-Work states.

By Michael Lucci

October jobs report: +2,200 jobs, but workforce dropout and unemployment rise

New IDES data show that Illinois’ overall jobs growth was weak for October. While the greater Chicago area had tepid jobs growth over the year, the rest of the state lost jobs.

By Michael Lucci

Illinois metro jobs data tell a tale of two states

Metropolitan jobs data show that from September 2015 – September 2016 the greater Chicago area is up approximately 49,000 jobs, while the rest of the state is down 6,000 jobs.

By Michael Lucci

A sorry state: Illinois’ economy in 2017

Since the end of the recession, only 5 out of Illinois’ 13 metro areas – Carbondale-Marion, Chicago, Kankakee, Lake County-Kenosha County and Springfield – have recovered all the private-sector jobs lost from the Great Recession.

By Orphe Divounguy