U.S. nonfarm payrolls added 208,000 workers in the month of July, against consensus expectations of 230,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The national unemployment rate ticked up to 6.2 percent. However, one of the reasons for the increase is that the number of people in the workforce increased. It is healthy for workforce participation to increase, because it means more people are searching for work. Sadly, that is not the case in Illinois. Since the Great Recession began, the U.S. workforce has grown, on net, by 2 million people. While the recession kept the workforce from growing at a better rate, the workforce has at least shown moderate growth. But Illinois has moved in the opposite direction. In the same period the U.S. workforce grew by 2 million, Illinois’ workforce shrank by 200,000. If Illinois’ workforce had simply grown at the same rate as the U.S. workforce, the state unemployment rate would be 10.9 percent, based on the number of Illinoisans who are employed today. Illinois’ unemployment rate, which stands at 7.1 percent through June, is the eighth-worst in the U.S. But it should be even worse. Just last month, a stunning 21,700 people quit the Illinois workforce, the largest single-month drop in recorded state history. This collapse made workforce dropout the primary factor in the state’s unemployment rate plummeting to 7.1 percent from 7.5 percent. - See more at: illinoispolicy.org/u-s-workforce-grows-illinois-shrinks/#sthash.H0TJR2eM.dpuf
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 17:11:52 +0000
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