State's Job Climate Gets 2 Forecasts
From the Chicago Tribune
The two major governor candidates sparred over jobs numbers Thursday, as Gov. Pat Quinn touted Illinois' lowest unemployment rate since he took office in 2009 while Republican challenger Bruce Rauner maintained that the Democrat still isn't doing enough to boost the economy.
Quinn visited a West Loop pump rebuilding company to highlight the state's 6.7 percent unemployment rate in August — a slight drop from 6.8 percent the month before. It marks the lowest rate since August 2008 and a sharp decrease from a year ago, when it stood at 9.2 percent.
The governor seized on the numbers as proof that he's been slowly digging the state out of the recession. "The bottom line is unemployment is down and jobs are up," Quinn said.
Rauner acknowledged in a statement that "it's always good news when more Illinoisans are working," but that didn't stop him from calling the figures into question hours before they were even released. Speaking at a downtown job fair for veterans, Rauner said the data could be "misleading," arguing that the jobless rate may have dropped because many people have simply stopped looking for work.
"The voters know, and they've told me crystal-clear that they don't believe Illinois is going the right way and they are suffering," Rauner said before attending a closed-door fundraiser with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate.
Read more in our daily News Update...
From the Chicago Tribune
The two major governor candidates sparred over jobs numbers Thursday, as Gov. Pat Quinn touted Illinois' lowest unemployment rate since he took office in 2009 while Republican challenger Bruce Rauner maintained that the Democrat still isn't doing enough to boost the economy.
Quinn visited a West Loop pump rebuilding company to highlight the state's 6.7 percent unemployment rate in August — a slight drop from 6.8 percent the month before. It marks the lowest rate since August 2008 and a sharp decrease from a year ago, when it stood at 9.2 percent.
The governor seized on the numbers as proof that he's been slowly digging the state out of the recession. "The bottom line is unemployment is down and jobs are up," Quinn said.
Rauner acknowledged in a statement that "it's always good news when more Illinoisans are working," but that didn't stop him from calling the figures into question hours before they were even released. Speaking at a downtown job fair for veterans, Rauner said the data could be "misleading," arguing that the jobless rate may have dropped because many people have simply stopped looking for work.
"The voters know, and they've told me crystal-clear that they don't believe Illinois is going the right way and they are suffering," Rauner said before attending a closed-door fundraiser with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate.
Read more in our daily News Update...