Speaking of Mike Shedlock, take a look at the fabulous interactive graphic over at his place illustrating U. S. employment by county and business sector. Here’s a snapshot of what it shows for Cook County:
As you can see, the greatest job growth is in healthcare and education and the greatest declines in construction and manufacturing. Since healthcare and education are preponderantly dependent on government spending and, ultimately, government spending comes from the taxes extracted from the sectors of the economy that don’t depend on government spending, I don’t see this as a positive trend.
You can use Mish’s graphic to zoom in on the employment situation in your own county.
In Springfield the greatest declines were in government, construction, and lodging/food. The greatest increases were in healthcare and administrative.
What really stood out playing with this is how few _net_ jobs were lost; its the failure to grow new jobs in the private sector that is the problem.