\n\t\t\t\tIllinois continues to be one of the slowest growing economies in the nation, ranking 46th in post-pandemic job recovery and adding just 20,300 jobs in the past year. Unemployment remained above the national average.
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Illinois\u2019 unemployment rate was stable in July at 4.6%<\/a>, meaning 301,000 Illinoisans were actively looking for work, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.<\/p>\n Illinois\u2019 unemployment rate ranked 11th highest in the nation, remaining above the national average of 4.2%<\/a> in July. The rate improved from a year earlier, when it was 5.1%.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Illinois saw a job growth of 20,300 during the past year, compared to July 2024. The growth rate for Illinois was only 0.33%, which ranked the state 45th in the nation.<\/p>\n During those 12 months, Illinois saw the highest growth rates in the information sector, adding 3,900 jobs for a 4.36% increase. Other sectors with strong growth rates were private education and health services with 17,400 new jobs and state government with 2,200 new jobs.<\/p>\n The federal government sector saw the largest percentage decline during the 12-month period, reporting 2.6% fewer positions than a year earlier. The professional and business services sector had the largest net decline at 11,000 positions. Manufacturing also saw a sharp decline of 5,400 jobs.<\/p>\n \n Excluding government, Illinois had modest gains in six of 11 industries.<\/p>\n Illinois ranked second-to-last for its job growth rate among neighboring states from July 2024 to July 2025. Missouri reported the strongest growth at 1.09% while Iowa was the only state with a loss at -0.23%. Illinois only outpaced growth of neighboring states in two of 11 industries.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Illinois\u2019 pandemic job recovery rate has continued to lag most states, ranking 46th in the nation. It\u2019s added 24,700 jobs since January 2020, a 0.4% increase. This ranks second-to-last among neighboring states in post-pandemic recovery.<\/p>\n The primary culprit in the state\u2019s slow economic growth and high unemployment is an unfriendly business environment thanks to high taxes resulting from a constantly mismanaged budget.<\/p>\n Illinois\u2019 state and local tax burden is the\u00a0highest\u00a0<\/a>in the nation. The state also levies the\u00a0third-highest<\/a>\u00a0state corporate income tax in the nation and the state\u2019s tax code is among the\u00a0least friendly\u00a0<\/a>for businesses in the Midwest.<\/p>\n Illinois has many advantages such as its diverse economy, central location and strong infrastructure. To take advantage of this, Illinois must focus on\u00a0strengthening its fiscal position<\/a>,\u00a0removing regulatory burdens<\/a>, and\u00a0providing real tax relief<\/a>\u00a0both to workers who are already finding it difficult to remain and to job creators who are desperately trying to stay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Illinois continues to be one of the slowest growing economies in the nation, ranking 46th in post-pandemic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[64,63,99,180],"class_list":{"0":"post-89637","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-jobs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}