Warshawsky Muffler has operated in Rockford, Ill., for 70 years, but that’s scheduled to change. The Rockford City Council said it may seize the three properties owned by S&L Warshawsky’s Inc. in order to allow a private developer to build a parking lot, according to the Rockford Register Star. The city decided earlier this year to...
U.S. nonfarm payrolls added 142,000 jobs in August, against consensus expectations of 230,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. August marked the worst month of job creation in 2014. Average monthly job creation so far this year is 215,000. The national unemployment rate ticked down to 6.1 percent, because only 16,000 unemployed Americans found...
Should the right to open a new business be put up to a public vote? At a meeting this week in Geneva, Ill., aldermen voted to reject tattoo artist Ramiro Guillen’s plan to open a tattoo parlor on Randall road because of opposition from other business owners. And, one alderman speculated, because of stereotypes about...
Illinois has long been known as a high-income state, but that‘s changed for many families in the middle. After decades of policy mistakes, the backbone of the state – Illinois’ middle class – has been hollowed out. Throughout Illinois’ history, innovation and high employment led to high incomes, making the Land of Lincoln a wealthy...
Though Baxter International Inc. has denied reports that it is considering relocating to Boston, Illinois officials are in damage-control mode to ensure that the Deerfield, Ill.-based company stays put. On Aug. 27, the Boston Business Journal reported that Baxter, a biotech giant that has been based in Illinois since the 1930s, is looking to make a...
The unemployment rate fell in all of Illinois’ metropolitan statistical areas in July, according to a press release from the Illinois Department of Employment Security. In fact, unemployment rates have fallen in all metro areas for four consecutive months, which seems like welcome news. But these numbers are only encouraging at face value. As is...
Nearly three months after the Illinois General Assembly passed devastating restrictions on innovative ridesharing services such as Uber and Lyft, Gov. Pat Quinn issued a surprising blow to the taxicab lobby by vetoing the job-killing legislation in its entirety. This March, in response to the recent success and popularity of ridesharing programs such as Uber...
On Aug. 25 Gov. Pat Quinn vetoed a bill pushed by the taxi lobby that would have restricted ridesharing services such as UberX and Lyft in Chicago. The veto is good news for ridesharing consumers and drivers. Uber will now move forward with its plan to bring 425 new jobs to Illinois. The bill’s champion...
There’s no right more basic than the right to earn a living to support yourself and your family. And for decades, that’s what street vendors have been trying to do. From elote-cart owners in Little Village to ice-cream carts along North Avenue Beach, entrepreneurs – who are often recent immigrants – have supported themselves by...
Illinois is dead last of all 50 states in recovering from the Great Recession – and two economic surveys prepared each month by the Illinois Department of Employment Security, or IDES, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics prove it. The BLS and IDES surveys track employment and jobs growth in Illinois: both household surveys...
Hostess Brands LLC announced on Aug. 20 that the Illinois bakery where Twinkies were first invented will close this fall. More than 400 workers will be affected by the shuttering of the company’s Schiller Park location in October. Sadly, this isn’t surprising. In 2012, Hostess closed three bakeries nationwide after a massive union strike, high...
Illinois’ 2011 income tax hike put the brakes on the state’s private-sector jobs recovery. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Illinois’ monthly job creation has slowed down since the state’s historic 2011 tax hike. Meanwhile, the rest of the country accelerated its jobs growth. Job losses from the Great Recession began for...
A recent study of the business tax burden in the 50 states and District of Columbia ranks Illinois as 27th in the nation. Portrayed as being “not so bad” in the media sheds a lot of light on Illinois’ current economic position. But while Illinois ranks in the middle of the pack for business tax...
New York lawmakers have acknowledged that low costs are beneficial to businesses, and that lower taxes mean more money, which leads to growth, innovation and hiring. The proof is the state’s START-UP NY program, which provides 10-year exemptions on property, sales and state income taxes to qualified new and expanding businesses. But while START-UP NY...