SPRINGFIELD – Illinois has seen a staggering growth in the increased number of government jobs in just two years, and State Senator Dave Syverson (R-Cherry Valley) says the cost to fund those new jobs could be better used to fund direct programs serving Illinois citizens.
A recent report by the state’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) shows that new government jobs far outpaced the growth of private sector jobs.
The Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Illinois added approximately 100,000 new jobs since 2023. Of those new jobs, 44,600 were new government jobs created by federal, state, and local governments. And the cost to taxpayers to fund those 44,600 new government jobs was more than $4 billion annually. Syverson noted that brings the number of government jobs just in Illinois to 845,000, and that is excluding education.
“If you add in the increased jobs in education of approximately 8,000, you get 52,000 new government jobs created in Illinois since 2023,” Syverson said. “That means more than 50 percent of all new jobs created in Illinois since 2023 are local, state, and federal government jobs. Has anyone noticed 52,000 jobs worth of better government?”
“Think back. Do you remember local, state, or federal leaders acknowledging any government jobs crisis in 2023? According to Gov. JB Pritzker and then-President Joe Biden, the people were getting the services they needed,” Syverson said. “So why the urgency to create more than 50,000 additional government jobs? And these are just jobs in Illinois!”
The COGFA report also showed while the government added 52,000 new jobs the last two years, the private sector did not fare so well. In contrast, construction added just 10,400 jobs, manufacturing added just 1,100 jobs, and financial and professional/business service-related jobs actually lost 40,000 jobs.
“Anyone who understands basic economics knows you cannot sustain an economy when government is growing at this level. The other impact of adding this many jobs to any budget is it understandably results in less funding going to programs that directly serve citizens in Illinois,” Syverson said. “If we take a page from the Federal government playbook and roll back the jobs that were clearly not needed in 2023, that will free up billions of dollars to allow us to balance the state budget without raising taxes and fully fund core programs without having to make cuts.”
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