The Southern: State continues to shed jobs
December’s employment numbers show Illinois is continuing to lose jobs.
“For the first time since 2009, Illinois ended a year with fewer jobs than when we started,” said Jeff Mays, director of the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
“Even as the nation gained more than 2.6 million jobs in 2015, Illinois lost 3,000,” he said in a Friday news release regarding the December numbers.
Over the year, nonfarm payroll employment in Illinois decreased by about 3,000 jobs, IDES analysts said.
WSIL: 3,000 jobs lost in Illinois in 2015 as state fails to recover from Great Recession
Illinois’ economy is still struggling. That became clearer Friday as the Department of Employment Security released figuresshowing the state lost 3,000 jobs in 2015.
The agency’s numbers crunchers say this is the first time since 2009 that Illinois has been left with fewer jobs at the end of the year than when it began.
The Great Recession ended in June 2009. Illinois still hasn’t recovered from it, though. IDES doesn’t expect that to happen until at least September of 2017. But even that time frame is optimistic, according to an expert on the state’s economy.
Northwest Herald: Out-migration from Illinois hits six digits: State population loss leads nation
The annual stream of people leaving Illinois for other states hit a new six-figure milestone last year, according to U.S. Census records.
For the first time, the annual loss of Illinois residents to outmigration exceeded 100,000 people, according to census data. About 105,200 more people left Illinois than arrived, according to census data released for the period between July 2014 and July 2015.
While an influx of 37,600 residents through international migration, and a natural population growth of 52,207 pared the Land of Lincoln’s total population loss to 22,194 people, Illinois still led all 50 states in population loss. At the same time, every other state in the Midwest showed a net population increase.
AP: Market tumble puts quake in pension funds
The slide on Wall Street could damage public employee pension funds around the country, most of which haven’t even recovered from the Great Recession, and the burden could end up falling on taxpayers.
Stocks have been tumbling in the first weeks of 2016, with the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 down nearly 9 percent since the start of the year.
If there’s a quick rebound, the slump won’t make much difference. If the tumble continues, it could be bad news for pensions. Somewhere down the line, states may have to either cut benefits — which can be legally or politically difficult — or pump more tax dollars into their pension funds to make sure retirees get what they were promised.