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http://www.illinoispolicy.org/news/a...cleSource=4362

Policy Chart: Illinois Loses Most Jobs in the Nation

8/19/2011

In a trend that continues to worsen, more Illinoisans found themselves unemployed in the month of July.

Illinois lost more jobs during the month of July than any other state in the nation, according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report. After losing 7,200 jobs in June, Illinois lost an additional 24,900 non-farm payroll jobs in July. The report also said Illinois’s unemployment rate climbed to 9.5 percent. This marks the third consecutive month of increases in the unemployment rate.

Illinois started to create jobs as the national economy began to recover. But just when Illinois’s economy seemed to be turning around, lawmakers passed record tax increases in January of this year. Since then, Illinois’s employment numbers have done nothing but decline.

Data released today by the bureau confirms this downward trajectory. When it comes to putting people back to work, Illinois is going backwards. Since January, Illinois has dropped 89,000 people from its employment rolls.

[AngegepeM]

Moving from a right-wing think tank to a newspaper...

Chicago Sun Times: http://newssun.suntimes.com/business...t-in-july.html

Since July 2010, job losses were reported in government, down 5,700; financial activities, down 3,700; information, down 3,200 and other services down 1,600.

Job gains were reported year-over-year in educational and health services, up 16,100; construction, up 15,400; and manufacturing, up 11,300.

The state agency said uneven monthly reports of job growth and unemployment rates are common in a typical recovery, but noted changes in data collection at the federal level may be having an impact on the state’s numbers. To ensure more reliable national statistics, federal authorities earlier this year made changes in how they conduct data estimates, and that reduces information from individual states, IDES said. As a result, there have been greater fluctuations in monthly jobs and employment data at the state level, according to the agency.

“How those changes might be reflected in July’s data will not be known for several months,” the agency said, adding most private economists expect the recovery from the national recession to continue but more gradually in the second half of the year.