Illinois job openings drop by 100,000 since September with 302,000 unemployed
Illinois job openings are down by more than 100,000 since September.
Illinois ended 2025 with nearly 302,000 people unemployed. Job openings are down by 100,000 since September 2025.
Illinois lost a net 1,700 jobs in 2025 while the United States as a whole added 584,000. The hardest hit sectors in the state were retail trade, which lost 17,600 positions, and manufacturing, which shed 9,300 jobs.
It was harder for workers in Illinois to find a job than in most other states. There were 1.4 unemployed workers for every job opening, the 7th highest ratio in the nation. This reveals a fundamental weakness: Illinois isn’t creating enough job openings to offer sufficient opportunities to its unemployed workforce.
Illinois’ workforce shrank by almost 109,000 people from December 2024 to December 2025. Illinois’ labor force participation rate, which measures the percentage of people working or looking for work, fell to 63.6% in December. It was 65.3% in December 2024. The state’s ratio of unemployed workers per job opening would have been worse if so many workers had not left the workforce over the previous 12 months.
Illinois needs comprehensive reforms to address its struggling labor force:
- 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
- Reallocating higher education administrative bloat to apprenticeship programs.
These policy changes would remove barriers limiting economic growth and help Illinois provide more workers with the opportunities they need.