We Got Jobs

By Alicia Dorr in News on Jul 12, 2006 3:30PM

Though John Kerry poo-pooed it, many a spirit was uplifted in Illinois when the news came that Illinois led the nation in job creation for the month of April. Sure, there were some that scratched their heads and wondered where the jobs were (aside from the newest fast food restaurant to set up shop next door—potato, potahto). But still, it was nice to hear that the state’s economy isn’t as bad as all the others.

Well, add another thread to the silver lining, especially if you’re a techie. According to a job site for tech pros, Chicago has shown some outstanding gains in IT jobs in 2006—an increase of 26.6%. Not everyone is a software engineer, or a functional analyst, or even a SAP portal senior technical consultant, but, well, some people are.

Really, the rest of the country is still in the stinker, with many people living in shantytowns called “Hoovervilles” and singing songs about how they were promised turkey in a pot. Not that Illinois is the best or anything, but Bush did point out that there were 74,000 jobs added in the Chicago area over the past two years. Nothing was said about whether these were jobs that didn’t even replace by half the amount that have been lost in the past few years, but, ah—let’s just let the technical professionals have a moment in the sun.