Before the citizens of Bloomington are forced to fund more downtown spending:
Illinois workforce shrinks by largest margin in state history
In June, Illinois suffered the largest monthly workforce loss in recorded state history.
June’s workforce loss was worse than the worst month of the Great Recession. Overall, 21,700 Illinoisans gave up and left the workforce in June; in September 2008, 17,500 Illinoisans quit the workforce. (Bureau of Labor Statistics data go back to 1976.)
This hefty workforce loss has driven state’s unemployment rate down to 7.1 percent from 7.5 percent, creating a superficial appearance of improvement. And Gov. Pat Quinn says Illinois needs to “keep the momentum.”
Keeping up this sort of “momentum” would be disastrous.
An astonishing 46,000 Illinoisans have quit looking for a job and dropped out of the workforce over the last three months. That three-month loss of workers from the workforce is the second-worst decline in the history of Illinois.
The working-age population in Illinois grew by 12,000 people over that same three-month period, which leaves nearly 58,000 working-age Illinoisans unaccounted for and out of the workforce in just three months.
The state’s jobless rate has plummeted from 8.4% to 7.1% in the same time frame. But it’s workers giving up and dropping out of the workforce, not the creation of new jobs, that has been the determining factor in this decline.
– See more at: http://www.illinoispolicy.org/illinois-work-force-shrinks-by-largest-margin-in-state-history/#sthash.ZTpHhKWL.dpuf
OMG! I just listened to a news story on 92.9 touting Illinois wonderful LOW unemployment rate!
Illinois’ unemployment rate is artificially low because so many have given up looking for a job. Current politicians will use this false hope to try to convince the people that they are doing a great job. The majority of politicians in Illinois are doing a terrible job and the few who are doing a good job get sick of not being able to make any progress because of all of the corruption and they give up and leave office. It seems these days that it’s very rare that an honest person will stay. As long as ignorant voters continue to vote for the wrong people, things will never improve and our state will continue to deteriorate. My best advice is, if you don’t do due diligence and know what each person stands for that is running, please stay home on election day. Let those who spend hours each day getting familiar with the candidates and their views determine the outcome of our elections. You will be doing yourself and your fellow citizens a huge favor. If someone offers you money to vote for a certain person, take their money, but vote for their opponent. Anyone who would do that is not someone you can trust.