Illinois Loses Nearly 7,000 Jobs In September [AUDIO]

The month of September brought more discouraging news for the Illinois economy.

According to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state lost 6,900 payroll jobs on net while the state’s unemployment rate fell to 5.4 percent. How is that possible? One reason is that Illinois' workforce-participation rate has fallen to 64.4 percent, which is the lowest it has been since 1977.

According to Illinois Policy, the numbers also indicate continued troubles in the manufacturing sector:

An important takeaway from the BLS report today is the continued collapse of Illinois’ manufacturing sector – a significant indicator of middle-class job performance in the state. Illinois lost 1,800 manufacturing jobs in September and has lost 12,500 manufacturing jobs in 2015 alone while every neighboring Midwest state has added manufacturing jobs during the same timeline.

We talked with Michael Lucci from Illinois Policy about what he saw inside the numbers: