Illinois Jobs Return To Pre-Pandemic Levels, Much Later Than Most Of Country

By Andrew Hensel | The Center Square

ILLINOIS — After July job numbers are included, Illinois finally returned to pre-pendemic total job levels more than three years after the COVID-19 pandemic began. And the feat was accomplished almost a year after most of the rest of the country.

The data from the Illinois Policy Institute show the state gained over 11,000 jobs in July. This job gain brings the state back to its pre-COVID numbers.

"The new job numbers from BLS showed that Illinois finally surpassed its January 2020 job levels in July of this year," said Justin Carlson of IPI. "Thirty-seven states, 75 percent of the country, had already hit that milestone, so that kind of just highlights how much Illinois has struggled in recovering its jobs that were lost during the pandemic."

Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered what he deemed "non-essential" businesses to hut down in March 2020 in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs as a result.

Illinois also has some of the nation's highest corporate and property taxes, which Carlson said contributes to its historically slow recovery.

"Certainly economic and fiscal policy issues like high taxation, which Illinois has some of the highest taxes in the country," Carlson told The Center Square. "Those things play a role in economic activity and getting jobs back and getting the economy back on track in the wake of a downturn."

Over the past few years, Illinois has seen major companies pack up and leave Chicago and elsewhere for other parts of the country, with Guggenheim, Boeing, Tyson, Caterpillar, and Citadel all announcing their departures.

The majority of the Midwest also reached its January 2020 job levels before Illinois.

"The rest of the states around Illinois have all reached January 2020 job levels before Illinois did, with the exception of Michigan," Carlson said.

Indiana reached its January 2020 level in February of 2022. Wisconsin accomplished this in February 2023, with Iowa reaching its level just a month later in March 2023.

According to the IPI numbers, most of the United States reached pre-pandemic numbers around May 2022.

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