Like a patient with a bad fever that brings a rosy-looking glow to the cheeks, Illinois reported a decline of its unemployment rate in July. But don’t pop any champagne corks because this is a terrible sign. The Illinois Policy Institute reports: Another month of workforce dropout shows Illinois needs a friendlier environment for entrepreneurs and businesses. Illinois’ workforce shrank for the third consecutive month in July, contracting by 33,600 people. This comes in the wake of 35,000 Illinoisans dropping out of the labor force in June, and 8,500 leaving the workforce in May. A shrinking workforce during summer months in Illinois is not surprising, given that summer is prime moving season and previous Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS, data show working-age adults driving Illinois’ out-migration. Sustained workforce dropout is the entire reason Illinois’ unemployment rate has fallen to 5.8 percent from the nation’s highest at 6.6 percent in...(Read Full Post)