Real State of the State
JOBS AND GROWTH Illinois has the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation More than 1 million Illinoisans are unemployed or underemployed Illinois is projected to be dead last in jobs growth in 2014 78,713 Illinoisans have given up and left the workforce since Dec. 2012 Illinois paid out $266M in improper unemployment insurance payments Illinois...
JOBS AND GROWTH
- Illinois has the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation
- More than 1 million Illinoisans are unemployed or underemployed
- Illinois is projected to be dead last in jobs growth in 2014
- 78,713 Illinoisans have given up and left the workforce since Dec. 2012
- Illinois paid out $266M in improper unemployment insurance payments
- Illinois lost 3,200 nonfarm payroll jobs in December
- Illinois’ average month-to-month unemployment for 2013 was 9.1 percent
- More than 100,000 Illinoisans dropped out of the work force in 2013
- From December 2012 to December 2013, the national unemployment rate fell from 7.9 percent to 6.7 percent. Illinois’ rate stayed the same at 8.6 percent.
- Illinois ranks as the 6th least free state in US.
- Illinois had the 6th-lowest population growth in the nation in 2013
- Illinois had a net loss of residents to each of its neighboring states in 2012
- The No. 1 destination for Illinois out-migrants: Indiana
- Illinois lost over 69,000 residents to net out-migration in 2012 alone, with over 33,000 going to neighboring states
- Illinois has lost a net of one resident every 10 minutes to domestic outmigration during the last 15 years.
- Illinois lost $20 billion in income to other states 2000-2010 due to domestic outmigration.
- The nine states with the highest income tax rates lost $90 billion in income 2000-2010 due to domestic outmigration.
- Illinois ranked second in the country in out-migration in 2013 according to United Van Lines.
- The rate of entrepreneurship in Illinois has been below the national average every year since 1996, with the exception of 2001.
- Chicago eclipses only Boston and Detroit for the worst entrepreneurship rate among the 15 largest metropolitan areas in the country.
- Illinois ranked 45th in GDP growth from 2000 to 2010.
- Illinois ranked 39th in the country in personal income per capita growth from 2000 to 2010.
- Illinois ranked 16th in personal income per person. Illinois ranked in the top 10 throughout the 1990s.
- Illinois ranked 47th in non-farm payroll employment growth from 2000 to 2010.
- One in three Illinoisans lives at or near poverty.
- One in five Illinois children are in poverty.
- Over 2 million people were enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, in Illinois in September 2013.
- Illinois added 100 people to food stamps for every new job created over the last decade
- 2.1 million people in Illinois were receiving Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) benefits in fiscal year 2012.
BUDGET AND TAX
- Illinois “temporarily” hiked tax rates by 67 percent in 2011
- By the end of the current fiscal year (FY2014) the 2011 tax hike will have generated more than $25 billion in new revenue
- Illinois ended 2013 with $7.6 billion in unpaid bills
- Interest payments on Illinois’ unpaid bills are 2.5 times higher than in 2011
- Illinois pays the highest penalty borrowing rate in the nation
- Illinois’ credit rating has been downgraded five times since 2011
- Illinois has the worst credit rating in the nation
- Illinois’ credit rating is only four notches away from junk-bond status
- Eighty cents of every 2012 tax hike dollar went to state pensions
- Illinoisans had to work an average of 115 days in order to earn enough income to pay their federal, state and local taxes in 2013. Just for state and local taxes, Illinoisans had to work:
- Illinois has the fourth-highest workers’ compensation costs in the nation
- Illinois has the nation’s second-highest property taxes
- The average property tax rate in Illinois increased 18 percent between 2010 and 2012
- Illinois has the fourth-highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world
- A progressive income tax would drop Illinois’ business tax climate ranking down to 44th
- Illinois has the 12th-highest combined state and average local sales tax rate in the country
- Illinois has the ninth-highest overall tax burden in the nation
- Illinois’ state and local tax burden in 2010: $4,512 per capita
- Illinois’ state and local tax burden as a percentage of state income in 2010: 10.2%
- The top 1 percent of taxpayers pay more than 20 percent of Illinois’ income tax burden
- The top 16 percent of taxpayers pay 60 percent of Illinois’ income tax burden
- Illinoisans with an annual base income of more than $1 million pay an average tax 47 times higher than the average non-millionaire resident
- Illinois has the nation’s fifth-highest gasoline tax
- Illinois is one of only seven states to apply an additional sales tax onto gasoline purchases
- Illinois closed the last fiscal year with $97.5 billion in unfunded pension liabilities
- Illinois’ pension and other bonded debt exceeded $127 billion at the end of FY2013
- Illinois has suffered 13 downgrades from the three major rating agencies since Governor Quinn took office
- Chicago’s unfunded pension liability totals $19 billion