Fiscal Focus

              Cover Story....................front , 8, 9, 10, 11
Letter From The Comptroller................... 2
State Assets ....................................... 2, 4
Lady Luck................................................ 3
Public Accountability Report................ 5
Selected Income Tax Credits ...........6, 12
State Government Employment .......... 7
Illinois Manufacturing ......................... 12
Economic Revenues Improve ...... 13, 14
November 2005 Tables ........................ 15
December 2005 Tables......................... 16
January 2006 Tables ............................ 17
February 2006 Tables........................... 18
March 2006 Tables................................ 19
Did You Know .........................Back Cover
In This Issue:
The health of the state’s economy drives the
fiscal position of state government as many
of Illinois’ revenue sources are dependent
on a strong economic condition. For
instance, individual income tax revenues are
dependent on working Illinoisans earning
good salaries, while the corporate income
tax is tied to strong profits by corporations.
Sales tax collections are driven by Illi-noisans’
purchases of tangible goods and a
strong economy obviously allows people to
spend more on these items. The structure of
the state’s economy has gone through many
changes during the last few decades reflect-ing
shifts in the global marketplace as has
the national economy.
Job Growth
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta-tistics
(BLS), in 2005 there were 5.87 million
nonfarm payroll jobs in Illinois based on sur-veys
of businesses. Although jobs in Illinois
were still below the high reached in 2000 of
6.05 million jobs, this was the second con-secutive
year of increases after three straight
years of job losses.
For most of the last 30 years, Illinois has
seen slow and steady growth in payroll jobs,
with declines occurring in years associated
with economic recessions, including four
years of sharp declines in the early 1980s.
According to BLS, Illinois had 4.57 million
payroll jobs in 1976, which translates into
an increase of 28.5% since that time.
The chart above shows annual growth in
jobs in Illinois compared to growth in the
U.S. economy. Over the last 30 years, the
national economy suffered job losses in
• APRIL 2006 ISSUE •
Jobs and Employment
in Illinois’ Economy
A Publication of the Illinois State Comptroller
Fiscal Focus
Cover Story continued, page 8