Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Flash Index shows slow recovery

The UI Flash Index for September increased slightly to 103.2 from its 102.9 level in August. This continues the pattern of slow, steady growth over the last year.

While the index is at the highest level since March 2008, the pace of recovery from the 2007-2009 recession remains sluggish. At similar stages in the recovery of the prior two recessions, the index was more than a point above the current level, said economist J. Fred Giertz, who compiles the Flash Index for the Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

The U.S. is currently three years and three months into the recovery from the 2007-2009 recession. Three years and three months into the recovery from the 2001 recession, which lasted from March to November according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Flash Index had increased to 104.2. By 39 months after the 1991 recession, the Flash read 104.3.

“The Flash Index performance corresponds to the slow national growth rate that was recently revised downward to 1.3 percent for the second quarter and the continued high unemployment rate,” Giertz said. Illinois’ unemployment rate in August was 9.1 percent, down from 10.2 percent a year earlier. This illustrates improvement in the economy, but the rate is still extremely high by historical standards.

Only the corporate tax component of the index was up in real terms compared to the same month last year while individual income and sales tax receipts fell.

The Flash Index is a weighted average of Illinois growth rates in corporate earnings, consumer spending and personal income. Tax receipts from corporate income, personal income and retail sales are adjusted for inflation before growth rates are calculated. The growth rate for each component is then calculated for the 12-month period using data through Sept. 30.

Read Next

Life sciences Photo of Michael Ward standing in tall grass on a riverbank.

How are migrating wild birds affected by H5N1 infection in the U.S.?

Each spring, roughly 3.5 billion wild birds migrate from their warm winter havens to their breeding grounds across North America, eating insects, distributing plant seeds and providing a variety of other ecosystem services to stopping sites along the way. Some also carry diseases like avian influenza, a worry for agricultural, environmental and public health authorities. […]

Announcements Marcelo Garcia, professor of civil and environmental engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering.

Illinois faculty member elected to National Academy of Engineering

Champaign, Ill. — Marcelo Garcia, a professor of civil and environmental engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Social sciences Male and female student embracing on the quad with flowering redbud tree and the ACES library in the background. Photo by Michelle Hassel

Dating is not broken, but the trajectories of relationships have changed

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — According to some popular culture writers and online posts by discouraged singles lamenting their inability to find romantic partners, dating is “broken,” fractured by the social isolation created by technology, pandemic lockdowns and potential partners’ unrealistic expectations. Yet two studies of college students conducted a decade apart found that their ideas about […]

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010