Illinois job growth? Government does all the hiring as private sector shrinks – Wirepoints | Wirepoints

By: Nick Binotti and Ted Dabrowski

Job growth is good, unless it’s the government doing all the hiring. Unfortunately, that’s the situation in Illinois.

A Wirepoints’ analysis of the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows Illinois was able to eke out a gain of 17,100 jobs over the last 12 months, but only because government job gains offset the state’s private sector job losses. Illinois added nearly 29,000 government jobs since February of last year, while the state notched nearly 12,000 private sector job losses.

That disparity reflects the failed priorities of Illinois, where obsession with government spending – on migrants, green energy, Medicaid, education and much more – fuels a larger government workforce at the expense of the private sector. Ordinary businesses and taxpayers have to pay for all that government spending, which squeezes out private sector hiring and investment.

A look at private sector job growth across the country validates the above claims. We subtracted government jobs from the overall payroll numbers of every state and it revealed a stark fact. Illinois ranked second-worst nationally for private sector job performance over the last year. 

Illinois lost 11,700 private sector jobs, with only Oregon performing worse. Only four states nationwide lost jobs.

Illinois’ focus on government jobs contrasts with dynamic states like Florida and Texas, which tax less and spend less overall. They both created hundreds of thousands of private sector jobs in the past year.

That offers a two-fold boon for those states. Not only do they become more wealthy and productive, but more people gainfully employed means less people dependent on government programs.

The more money that’s left in the private sector means more investment and more jobs. It’s a positive spiral.

Illinois, in contrast, is suffering the exact opposite phenomenon. 

It’s not just the problem of government job growth in Illinois. It’s also the problem of job growth in health care and social assistance jobs, much of it government controlled and government subsidized. Over the last year, that sector grew by 23,300 jobs.

That’s not surprising given the massive expansion of Illinoisans dependent on government healthcare. Last year there were a record 3.8 million Illinoisans enrolled in Medicaid – nearly a million more compared to before the pandemic. The bigger the number of dependents, the more government workers needed to handle them.

On top of that, the state has spent at least $1 billion on illegal immigrant healthcare costs. Add to that the hundreds of millions more spent for migrant support programs, including welcoming centers and legal services, and it becomes easy to understand why government-related jobs are growing.

Much of the same can be said of spending on homelessness, DEI initiatives, mandates in education and other social spending programs.

We end this piece by highlighting the performance of each major jobs sector over the last 12 months. If Illinois ever wants to have growth and lasting prosperity, our future leaders will have to focus on real private sector job creation – the productive kind.

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