Frank Manzo IV is the Policy Director of the Illinois Economic Policy Institute (ILEPI). Visit ILEPI at www.illinoisepi.org or follow ILEPI on Twitter @illinoisEPI. This post is part of the “Frankonomics” series.

Governor Rauner gave the annual “State of the State” Address this afternoon.

Forget all of the talking points (from both sides) for a second, please. Let’s look at the actual economic data.

According to information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the private sector is not doing very well under the Rauner Administration.

In fact, 7 of the Governor’s first 12 months in office saw private sector job losses. From January 2010 through December 2014 – the four years prior to the Governor assuming office – the private sector only cut jobs in 9 out of 48 months. Private sector performance was not great prior to Rauner – but at least it was positive.

It was the same thing for manufacturing, which the Governor spoke about during his “State of the State” address. Manufacturers in Illinois were adding jobs consistently from January 2010 through July 2011. Monthly employment changes became a mixed bag after that. But, since January 2015 when the new administration took over, the manufacturing industry has lost jobs in 10 out of the past 12 months. That’s not good.

The first step towards restoring business, investor, and consumer confidence in the State of Illinois is to fix the budget. Everything else until then is a sound bite, a talking point, a distraction from the real problem.

The time for action is now.

Maybe you are a skeptical journalist or politician or commentator. Unlike some other policy groups, we here at ILEPI want you to know exactly where and how we retrieved our data. So here, step-by-step, is how to replicate this data:

• Begin on the U.S. Department of Labor website: http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/dsrv?sm.
• Click “Seasonally Adjusted”
• Click “01 All Employees, In Thousands”
• Click “17 Illinois”
• Click “00000 Statewide”
• Click “05 Total Private” and “30 Manufacturing”
• Click “05000000 Total Private” and “30000000 Manufacturing”
• Retrieve data
• Voila! Learn something new with facts and evidence.