Research Reports

Only 51 percent of black adults reported having some form of work in Illinois.

Illinois is suffering from an out-migration crisis, and millennials are leading the exodus. On a national scale, Illinois is the second-biggest net loser of both millennial taxpayers and their dependents, and millennial college students. Illinois’ youth out-migration problem threatens the state’s long-term financial stability and economic vitality. Illinois’ out-migration trend has worsened in recent years, helping to catapult Illinois…

Illinois’ workers’ compensation system costs taxpayers $1 billion per year, and employers repeatedly cite hefty workers’ compensation costs as a driving factor in fleeing the state for friendlier business climates. High workers’ compensation costs most directly affect labor-intensive blue-collar employment sectors – which have struggled to regain their footing in Illinois since the Great Recession. Despite mounting evidence that workers’ compensation…

Workers’ compensation is a significant cost to Illinois taxpayers and drains scarce tax dollars from government coffers. A previous report in this series estimated the direct cost of workers’ compensation to state, county and municipal governments is $402 million in worker payouts per year.1 Building upon those findings, this report estimates that the total cost of workers’ compensation to…