Illinois Governor raising taxes to increase jobs

Illinois jobs can have a bumpy road ahead of them. The state has not been doing well in the recent months. They are one of the hardest hit by the recession. In February, the unemployment rate hit a record high of 8.6%, which is higher than the national rate.

The goal is to get Illinois out of the $11.5 billion debt. The Chicago Tribune reported that Governor Quinn wants to raise income taxes as a way to mend the economy. This is part of his $26 billion Illinois Jobs Now plan.

People believe that the current low income tax attracts business to the state. The increase could force away jobs thus effecting the people and the suffering economy. Gov. Quinn believes that higher taxes would allow the government to slowly diminish their debt to businesses and allow the state to keep other governmental services.

However, Quinn promises that this increase is to help citizens. Through increasing taxes, it will bring hundreds of thousands of jobs.

"This is an emergency. We have a good plan, and as a matter of fact we have the only plan. There are people getting very worried about the construction season," Quinn said.

Additional taxes are planned to be issued on cigarettes, drivers license and license plates, and on corporations. This has to potential of creating 340,000 jobs throughout the state.

Gov. Quinn working toward new jobs

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, in his short time in office, has come to the state's aid. He has high hopes for helping Illinois citizens, like creating Chicago jobs.

On February 21st, Quinn launched Recovery.Illinois.gov to assist citizens looking for benefits of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act. The goal is to help the unemployed through:

• Tracking projects, spending and new jobs;
• Listing state programs receiving funding including unemployment benefits, food stamps, vocational rehabilitation, and others;
• Connecting to agency sites posting available project lists; and
• Allowing citizens to suggest uses for federal stimulus funds.

“We are moving as quickly as possible to get projects going so that we can get the people of Illinois back to work,” said Governor Quinn. “This website will help them learn about important programs and track our progress.”

In addition to the recovery website, on March 9th, Quinn announced his desire for a $25 billion construction program. His hopes are that, if approved, the program will improve school, roads, and bridges. Thus, creating more jobs throughout the state.

The state could be seeing changes as soon as spring time.

IllinoisCareers.com

Searching for a job in Illinois? There are many websites on the web that help people looking for a job throughout the state. However, IllinoisCareers.com stands out from the rest. Their site is designed with the job seeker in mind.

A list of top industries is provided if there is no desired area, job seeker can look all over the state. Choosing a specific job field and city is also available. Don't know what field you want to be in? IllinoisCareers allows you to post your resume on their site. The job can find you.

The site is also there to help you in make you job search the best it can be. Job seekers can look at company profiles in the area. They can decide if a company seems right for them before they submit their resume.

Career resources helps job seekers find the best job for them. this section includes tips on making your resume stand out, through a strong cover letter or a detailed resume. They, also, offer tips for doing well in interviews.

Finally, IllinoisCareer help you look into your salary options, the cost of relocating, and more. This site is the best job seeking site in Illinois. Use it and get that that job you've always wanted.

Jobs in Illinois Harder to Find in October

Finding a job in Illinois just got harder. During the month of October, the state’s unemployment rate rose to 7.3 percent from Septembers 6.9 percent, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES). This means that approximately 11,700 of the state’s residents lost their jobs in October, bring total employment down to 5,958,400. For the same month, the national jobless percentage was 6.5 percent.

The struggling housing market continued to cause problem for the state’s job market. Approximately 4,100 people lost their construction jobs in Illinois in October. Since fewer people can afford to buy new homes, the need for new construction projects have drastically declined. Altogether, the industry has lost 15,200 jobs. Out of these, almost half (7,400 jobs) were done away with by employers during the last two months. Total industry employment is now down to 254,500.

With so many people unemployment, many local governments have having to tighten their belts because the amount of taxes taken in has dropped significantly. As a result of this, the government sector lost 2,700 jobs in Illinois. Employment in this industry is now at 850,200.

Throughout the nation the financial industry has taken a severe hit. With the results of the bailout still to be seen, many employers are cutting expenses by doing away with jobs. In Illinois, 2,200 banking, insurance and securities workers found themselves without work in October. The industry now provides jobs to 394,000 of the state’s residents. Other sectors that showed signs of weakening included manufacturing and retail.

“Although Illinois has a diverse economy, the national economic slowdown has had a negative effect on Illinois unemployment and thus we need federal government assistance with an investment in infrastructure and additional stimulus to help create jobs,” said Maureen O’Donnell, who is the director of IDES, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Illinois Jobs to Be Lost as Bank Consolidation Begins

JP Morgan Chase & Co. acquisition of Washington Mutual Inc maybe but for the financial giant, but it cause the loss of Illinois jobs. The firm recently announced that it plans to close branches in the states where the two have service overlaps.

Both of these companies are rather big in Illinois, which means that there are many locations where Chase will now own multiple offices that are extremely close to each other. In these cases, the firm has said that it may decide to close one of the branches in an effort to merge business, but has said that it has no plans to sell off any of the locations.

“Those consolidations could be from a WaMu brank or a Chase branch,” the company said in a recent press release. The decision as to which to shut down will be made on case by case basis depending on such facts as the location of the branches in question and the terms of the leases involved.

Throughout the nation Chase has said that it may close as many as 400 branches. As of now, the company has not commented on how many locations will be closed down in each state, so the exact number of Illinois jobs that will be lost is still unknown.

Rather than saying how many employees will be laid off, Chase has said that it expects to decrease the combined companies spending by $1.5 billion. This is approximately 15 to 20 percent of WaMu’s non interest expenses.

"We've got expense numbers, but even in places where we intend to close branches, in places like Illinois, even though we might consolidate branches we hope to find a lot of people jobs in the company” said a representative for the firm.

The company hopes to begin consolidating the branches sometime next year.

Illinois Jobs Decreased in August

The number of Illinois jobs decreased in August, while the number of jobseekers continued to grow. This caused the state's unemployment rate to once again rise, although only slightly. The percentage of Illinois population that was unable to find work increased slightly, going from 7.2 percent in July to 7.3 percent, according to the state's Department of Employment Security.

During the same period of time, the national unemployment rate also increased, rising to 6.1 percent. This shows that, for the most part, it is easier to find a job else where in the country than it is in Illinois.

In August, IDES statistics show that there were 5,976,100 people on the payrolls of Illinois employers. This figure is down by 3,500 jobs since July, which makes last month the third month in a row that Illinois companies have reduced the number of people they employee. This is the first time in state in over five years that there has been this many months of consecutive employment losses.

In order to simply keep job statistics steady, Illinois employers must generate several thousands new jobs a month. The reason for this is that there are this many new workers entering the job force at one time. Unless a large number of new employment opportunities are created with in the near future, September will see another rise in the jobless rate.

As of a year ago, only 5.2 percent of residents of Illinois were unable to find work. Although this figure was still over the national unemployment average of 4.7 percent, it was certainly not as drastic as the statistics are showing this year. Over the 12 months, Illinois unemployment has climbed 2.1 percent, while the country as a whole has increased by 1.4 percent.

The industry that has taken the hardest hit in Illinois is the trade and transportation sector. In August this area of employment lost 3,300 jobs and lost 2,000 positions in July. Despite this, the industry remains the largest employer in the state, employing 1,216,200 individuals altogether.

Going against the national trend, Illinois construction industry actually added 900 jobs. Nevertheless, this sector has lost approximately 7,900 jobs during the last twelve months. Around 261,900 Illinois residents are employed by the industry at this time.

Education and health services also increased the number of jobs it provided by 500 positions in August. This means that the industry has seen a significantly increase in the last 12 months, rising by 10,600 jobs to employ 791,100 individuals in the state.

Other sectors that decreased the number of jobs provided included Manufacturing, which lost 700 jobs, and government jobs which lost 1,000 positions.

14,800 New Illinois Jobs to be Created in Joliet

Construction of a massive intermodal rail facility in Joliet will soon create at least 14,800 new Illinois jobs. The City Council recently approved, by a 8-0 vote, the annexation of a large portion of the land needed for the project and authorized concept plans for it.

More than 150 people attended the meeting to discuss views on the 3,600 acre endeavor which will include a rail year and industrial development. Although many local homeowners had a variety of concerns, union leaders stated that this project is much needed in order to help people find jobs. Issues with the project included traffic, pollution and the amount of money residents will receive if they sell their property.

“It disrupts a lot of live,” said Councilman Joe Shetina, “but it brings a lot of opportunity.”
According to officials with CenterPoint Properties, which is based in Oak Brook, this project will be company’s largest to date. They expected that it will create 5,900 construction jobs during the course of the next 10 to 15 years. Since construction is an industry that has taken a hard hit from the housing market slump, these positions are extremely important. On top of this, another 8,900 new employees will be needed for the rail yard, trucking and other surrounding industrial developments.

CenterPoint has already signed an agreement stating that it will use union labor on the project. The company is also in the process of working out to details to set aside a portion of jobs for minority workers and contractors.

Officials with the company said that they will continue negotiations with homeowners near the project site. Offers to buy will remain on the table until late August.

Preliminary work on the project is scheduled to begin this year. Construction of the rail yard has been scheduled to start in 2009 and end in 2010.

Illinois Job Market

Despite leading the Midwestern states in employment growth since January of 2004, Illinois’s jobless rate for the month of March, which was 5.5 percent, exceeded the national average of 5.1 percent. According to the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) the number of positions existing in the state was basically unchanged.

Local employers only did away with 1,600 Illinois jobs, or 0.03 percent of the existing statewide payroll. Consider that, throughout the country, employers did away with 80,000 jobs in March alone, Illinois seems to be fairing well in comparison.

Data shows that the Illinois job market has been more stable than that of the nation for four of the last five months. No other state has outdone this performance since January of 1996. Since the beginning of Illinois reign as leading producer of jobs in the Midwest, the state has created 197,400 new positions. Since March of last year, 21,700 new Illinois jobs have been created despite the face that the national economy has been suffering for some time now.

IDES Director James P Sledge says that “as the national economy begins to show signs of stagnation and the national unemployment rate hit’s a 2 ½ year high, local areas throughout Illinois continue to remain stable or report over-the-year job gains.” He went on to say that “Since the beginning of the year, employment in the nation has declined 232,000, while Illinois, under the leadership of Gov. Blagojevich, has gained 13,300 new jobs.”

Although the number of jobs in Illinois remains relatively steady, positions that offer health benefits as a perk are on the decline. According to a recently released study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the number of Illinois jobs with medical insurance dropped by 660,000 positions between the years of 2001 and 2005. Data shows that approximately 26,600 private employers ceased to offer medical coverage during this time period.

For the most part, this phenomenon is the result of the rising cost of receiving medical attention. At this time the nation is going through a shortage of properly trained healthcare workers. Since there are fewer people available to be hired for a growing number of Illinois jobs in healthcare, employers must pay staff members more to avoid losing them to competitors.

Between this and the fact that new medical technology is more expensive than ever before, health insurance costs are becoming too much for both workers and employers. By the year 2005, the average cost of a family health insurance policy for those with jobs in Illinois was $10,574. Employers, which pay about three-quarters of this expense, are finding it difficult to provide these kind of benefits for all members of their payrolls. At this time there is no report on how many Illinois workers have lost health insurance in the last three years.