Pritzker record: Illinois 5th-worst for private-sector job growth
Illinois is in the bottom five states for private-sector job growth under Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Since he took office, job growth in the private sector in the state is up less than 0.1%.
Under Gov. J.B. Pritzker, private-sector job growth in Illinois has remained virtually flat while the nation has seen growth.
Illinois’ private-sector job growth is in the bottom five states. Such jobs grew by less than 0.1% from 2018 to 2025 in Illinois, compared with a national rate of over 6%.
In the three years after the pandemic, the number of businesses leaving Illinois tripled, including Caterpillar and Citadel moving their headquarters out of the state.
Some will absolve Pritzker of responsibility on this metric and point toward the overarching trend of lagging Midwestern job growth. That ignores the fact that the number of private-sector jobs in the rest of the Midwest grew 2.7 times faster than in Illinois.
Illinois added only 21,100 private-sector jobs from 2018 to 2025, an annual growth rate of less than one 10th of 1%.
Government jobs grew by 4% in a state facing the nation’s worst pension crisis and having nearly $144 billion in unfunded liabilities.
Illinois’ job environment is driven by several economic factors. The state has one of the highest tax burdens in the nation. The state’s corporate income tax is third-highest, and its tax code is among the Midwest’s least friendly for businesses.
To improve job growth, Illinois must strengthen its fiscal position, remove regulatory burdens and provide real tax relief.
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