Startling new data reveals just how long Illinoisans will have to wait for the state to have a decent job market, since the end of the 2009 recession. It will take a minimum of seven years for the state to rebuild its job market to where it was per-recession. The study was conducted by the Illinois policy institute.

During what is now being called–the great recession–nearly 500,000 Illinoisans found themselves jobless. Nearly half of all American states have recovered their job market.

However, Illinois is far from that. We spoke to one policy expert on why that is.

“But we did something that no other state in the mid-west did.We raised taxes. dramatically. Right in the middle of the great recession recovery. We can see that our employment growth was not that bad int he first year of recovery. And then we raised taxes,” said Michael Lucci Policy Director. “And our employment growth since the tax hike of 2011 has been dramatically slower.”

The institute believes tax reform is the key to speed up the job market growth.
Another solution would be to lessen licensing burdens on entrepreneurs to start their own businesses.

The study did find the groups that continue to be effected by the slow recovery are millenials and minorities.

The job market is expected to be to per-recession levels by the year 2021

To read the story at WCID15.com.