Illinois companies announce 1,666 mass layoffs in February

Illinois companies announced 1,666 mass layoffs in February, with more than 4-in-5 impacting workers in Cook County. Schaumburg alone accounted for one-third of job losses.

Illinois companies announced 1,666 mass layoffs during February, with the highest concentration in Schaumberg at a subsidiary of Nestlé.

Of the 1,666 Illinois layoffs, 550 hit Schaumburg after Elite Staff Inc. and Labor Network, two Nation Pizza companies owned by Nestlé USA, announced they would be restructuring their workforces. Nation Pizza makes frozen pizzas, including DiGiorno, and other frozen foods and bakery items.

Chicago had the second-highest number of mass layoffs as three companies, including Home Partners of America LLC and Heartland Health Alliance, cut workers. Health care facilities cut 369 workers.

Another 175 job losses hit Lake County and 83 impacted DeKalb County. Franklin County was the only county in Southern Illinois to report mass layoffs.

Standard layoffs accounted for 870 of the Illinois job losses, more than half the mass layoffs reported in February while business closures impacted an additional 620 workers.

The employers did not indicate whether the remaining job cuts were related to business closures or standard layoffs but the reports do show about 87% of these mass layoffs will be permanent.

Illinois employers are mandated to file monthly mass layoff reports under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act if they have 75 or more full-time employees. While the reports serve as a gauge for job trends, they are not a perfect indicator of broader economic health.

December job reports showed roughly 340,000 Illinoisans were seeking work. That unemployment rate of 5.2% was the third highest in the nation and significantly higher than the national unemployment rate of 4.1%.

Illinois state leaders could do a lot to make Illinois more attractive to businesses and workers. Some good places to begin would be reducing Illinois’ nation-leading state and local tax burden starting with its No. 2 in the nation average property tax rate, lowering its second-highest in the U.S. corporate income taxes and decreasing the state’s 8.65% maximum unemployment insurance tax rate.