Sangamon Sun

Veteran state Sen. Steve McClure (R-Springfield) shrugs he could have predicted the latest Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) job numbers.

“The truth of the matter is our state has been bleeding jobs and population for a while now,” McClure told the Sangamon Sun. “The fact is this state has not been a friendly place for small business, a place where they feel they’re getting good value and that’s why you see the exodus. Now, the governor’s ban on indoor dining is only making matters worse.”

The latest IDES data bares that out, indicating that the state has now lost jobs over two of the last three months, all of it coming at a time when much of the rest of the country is showing signs of stabilizing in the face of COVID-19 to the tune of seven straight months of job growth.

Not surprisingly the bulk of the job losses across Illinois have come in the leisure and hospitality industry, which lost upwards of 27,000 during the month of November alone as the governor’s ban on indoor dining took greater effect with the changing calendar. McClure laments no one can be sure what comes next given the way Gov. J.B. Pritzker continues to operate through executive action and without allowing the legislature to have any input. 

“With him, everything is top secret, even the date he claims to use” McClure added. “The fact that he also breaks his own rules and changes them midway through the game just makes this harder to accept. It has people with common sense scratching their heads, asking themselves if his rules are so important why isn’t he following any of them?”

Over the long haul, McClure said he worries about what it could all mean for Illinois.

“We could lose a significant amount of our small businesses because of all this,” he said. “Illinois has been sliding in this direction for a while and what he’s doing is only accelerating it.”