From the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, a legislative agency:
Employment Compared to October 2019
[In] A comparison of employment growth since before the COVID-19 pandemic…Illinois has grown more slowly than the nation as a whole,…
Since October 2019, U.S. employment has increased by 4.9%, while Illinois has grown by just 0.5%, adding approximately 28,700 jobs.
Both Illinois and the U.S. experienced sharp declines in employment in 2020, followed by strong recoveries in 2021 and 2022. However, a noticeable slowdown in job growth emerged in 2023 and into 2024.
While Illinois mirrored the national pattern, its initial declines in 2020 were steeper (-6.8% vs. -5.9%), and its subsequent rebound has been consistently weaker.
Champaign-Urbana and Bloomington are the only metro areas in Illinois to outpace national growth during this period. Champaign-Urbana experienced the fastest growth among Illinois metro areas, increasing by 8.4%, or 10,000 jobs, since October 2019.
