Chamber Members:
Who’s ready for the long Labor Day weekend? Some good news today on job numbers, but not on covid cases. Interesting though that such as backlog existed since we don’t recall hearing about the possibility during all the reports of the record-breaking testing days. Enjoy your weekend as next week we’ll see the return of “action” out in Washington DC.
Good News Follow-Up on Job Numbers
The U.S. economy added 1.4 million jobs in August, sliding the unemployment rate down from 10.2 percent to 8.4 percent. This is the first time the unemployment rate has dipped below 10 percent since the coronavirus outbreak in March.
August marks the fourth consecutive month of job gains and declining unemployment since the U.S. economy bottomed out in April. More than 20 million Americans lost their jobs that month, pushing the unemployment rate to a post-Great Depression high of 14.7 percent.
Illinois Approved for $300 Federal Unemployment Benefits
Illinois is one of the last states to apply and be approved for a federal program providing an additional $300 in unemployment assistance per week to qualifying residents. Up to $44 billion is available to states through Dec. 27, or until the funding runs out. Benefits can be retroactively paid to eligible Illinoisans, starting with the week ending Aug. 1.
The governor’s office, in a news release, estimated that funding will be exhausted in three weeks. It cited unspecified “economic projections for the demand of these funds.” Only those Americans who are eligible for at least $100 per week in unemployment benefits qualify for the extra $300 in federal funding. That is why Pritzker said Illinois did not apply for the program sooner — about 55,000 residents will be excluded, according to his office.
State Catches Up on Cases – Why?
The state reported 5,368 new COVID-19 cases today, a massive spike that the Illinois Department of Public Health blamed on a slowdown in data processing at the department this week. It’s the largest single-day case total the state’s reported since it began tracking COVID cases.
While the slowdown caused delayed reporting in “additional aggregate numbers, it did not affect the reporting of positive or negative results to individuals in any way.” That slowdown “affected the reporting of tests due to the large volume of testing occurring in Illinois,” the department said. “All available resources were deployed to improve the data systems, which are now fixed, and the backlog created by the slowdown has been cleared. Two system upgrades were put in place and the systems now have significantly faster processing capacity.”
Finally, please join the Joliet Chamber Government Affairs Committee and Leslie Munger, former Illinois Comptroller, for an interactive virtual conference to discuss the Progressive Income Tax (a.k.a. “The Fair Tax”) including:
- Discussion on removing the flat tax.
- What will this proposal mean for most taxpayers?
- Can retirement income now be taxed?
- Will the Progressive Income Tax decrease the budget shortfalls, bill backlogs and unfunded pension liabilities?
You can register here to participate: http://jolietchamber.chambermaster.com/events/details/2020-webinar-september-10-progressive-income-tax-discussion-5951
Stay well,
Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry Staff and Board of Directors
Mike Paone
Vice President – Government Affairs
Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry
mpaone@jolietchamber.com
815.727.5371 main
815.727.5373 direct