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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. "37 states, 75% 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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