Who could possibly have seen this coming?

Almost everyone who was paying attention. [Link]

If you want less of something, you tax it. Thanks to the – I almost said “Byzantine,” but your average Byzantine Empire bureaucrat would be insulted at the slight to his competence, and for good reason – thanks to the insanely complicated nature of Obamacare, it pretty much acts as a tax on generating full-time jobs.

Guess what happened?

No, go on. Guess.

In Illinois, three employment sectors fall into both the lowest-paid and lowest work hours categories: retail trade, food and beverage, and general merchandise. They comprise about one-fifth of the state’s total employment. Of these three sectors, all three have average work hours of less than 30 hours per week. The law’s threshold for full-time is 30 hours.

Between 2011 and 2013, Illinois has lost the equivalent of about 63,000 jobs in these sectors through reduced work hours. That is close to the total number of jobs added in all sectors in the state during the past year.

It is important to note that, before ObamaCare was passed, the average work hours remained steady for these sectors in Illinois, even in the aftermath of the financial crisis. In fact, average work hours increased slightly in two of these sectors between 2008 and 2010. But all three sectors saw dramatic reductions in average work hours after ObamaCare was enacted.

Gee, who would have thunk it? – yes, yes, half of the political blogosphere.  But we don’t count to the folks running the executive branch at the moment, because we’re not the Right Sort Of People.  God save the Republic from all technocrats.