Over 292K Illinoisans remain jobless despite 318K jobs

Despite 318,000 job openings, Illinois’ unemployment remained above national average in the latest economic measures.

Illinois’ workforce struggles continued in August 2025, with 292,495 residents looking for work even though there were 318,000 job openings.

The state’s unemployment rate stood at 4.4%, 12th highest in the country. It was the 177th month it exceeded or tied the national average.

For the first time in over a year, the number of job openings exceeded the number of Illinoisans looking for work. Job openings jumped by 39,000, while those unemployed and looking for work declined by about 8,000.

Despite this improvement, Illinois faces a persistent skills gap – unemployed people don’t have the skills employers need to fill their job openings.

From August 2024 to August 2025, only 5,900 jobs were created in Illinois. The biggest gains came from private education and health services, which added 18,600 positions, followed by information sector jobs increasing by 4,800 and state government employment growing by 3,800.

Illinois’ labor force shrank by over 62,000 people from August 2024 to August 2025, declining by 0.9 percentage points. No state lost more total workers during this period. Many of these people gave up looking for work, so they are no longer officially counted as unemployed. If they resume looking for work, the state’s unemployment rate will climb.

Illinois’ ratio of unemployed workers per job opening was 0.9, placing the state 17th nationally. This relatively favorable ratio indicates that job seekers face less competition compared to many other states, yet the persistently higher than average unemployment suggests structural barriers remain in the labor market.

Illinois employers hired 199,000 workers in August while experiencing 214,000 total separations, creating a net outflow of talent.

Of those separations, 131,000 were voluntary quits and 70,000 were layoffs or discharges. The state’s quit rate of 2.1% exceeded the national average of 1.9%, while the layoff rate of 1.1% matched the national rate.

Illinois needs comprehensive reforms to address its chronically higher than average unemployment: ending excessive occupational licensing, expanding school choice, reducing the nation’s No. 1 property tax rate, replacing the corporate income tax with a gross receipts tax and reallocating higher education administrative bloat to apprenticeship programs.

These policy changes would remove barriers limiting economic growth and help Illinois finally break its streak of unemployment rates higher than the nation’s.