CHICAGO -- Illinois' employment grew at the
highest rate in a decade, although the state continued to lose
higher-paying jobs, according to a report released Monday.
"We're growing jobs. We're not growing high-quality,
high-paying, good-benefit jobs," said Ralph Martire, executive
director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, who
contributed to the report.
Between July 2005 and July 2006, the state's
total employment increased by 2.2 percent, greater than the
national rate of 1.9 percent and better than the average rate
of 1.8 percent for four other Midwestern states: Indiana,
Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Illinois added 135,000
new jobs, mostly in the hospitality sector -- hotel
housekeepers or restaurant wait staff, for example. At the
same time, there were 10,900 fewer jobs within the information
and manufacturing sectors, which usually have the highest pay.
The report, called the "State of Working Illinois
2006," analyzed data from the Census, the Illinois Department
of Employment Security and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It
is an update to an initial study released by the same
researchers in 2005.
Industry officials say it echoes
what they've said for a long time.
"We're getting away
from our historical heritage of industrial and agricultural,"
said Jim Nelson, spokesman for the Illinois Manufacturers'
Association.
The report found that, between July 1990
and July 2005, the total number of manufacturing jobs in
Illinois dropped by 24.6 percent, or 225,800 jobs.
Fred Giertz, a University of Illinois economist, said
Illinois is mimicking the national trend.
"Employment
goes down because operations become more efficient," Giertz
said. "We can produce more efficiently so we basically need
fewer people."
The report also shows that most
industries' weekly wages have declined since 2001.
After being adjusted for inflation, the weekly wage in
the manufacturing sector in 2001 was $693.94. By 2006, it fell
4.9 percent, to $659.66, according to Matthew Eskew, a
researcher at Northern Illinois University's Regional
Development Institute and Office for Social Policy Research.
However, researchers have seen small gains in weekly
wages since 2005. And women's wages increased by 17.9 percent
between 1980 and 2004 and are 34 cents higher than the
national median. However, women still are paid less than men
on average.
"There's some good news finally in
Illinois, we've got a decent rate of job growth, but economic
data is a little more complex than that," Martire said. "The
hope is that we're entering a positive phase."
The
report was conducted by Northern Illinois University, the
Center for Tax and Budget Accountability and the Illinois
Department of Employment Security; it was funded by the
Chicago-based Joyce Foundation.
