Most states have far outstripped Illinois on the number of jobs recovered. And even worse, Illinois has also lagged in the quality of jobs recovered. Illinois was the 37th state to recover and match its pre-recession jobs count. But there are still 110,000 fewer Illinoisans working today than before the recession began.

News that Wrigley has started producing Skittles in Illinois has many excited – until they learn just how much Illinois gave in tax incentives to lure 75 new jobs.

There’s a reason new facilities aren’t being built in Illinois: In too many cases a business investment in Illinois doesn’t make financial sense unless Illinois taxpayers are paying for a chunk of the project. This system isn’t good for businesses, or for workers and unions that are losing jobs. Until Illinois makes the broad tax and regulatory reforms needed to compete for blue-collar jobs, businesses are going to keep expanding elsewhere or asking for tax breaks to come here.

Caterpillar’s plans to bring new jobs to Arizona demonstrate how Illinois politicians’ planned tax hikes and failure to make needed regulatory reforms harm the state’s manufacturing sector.

Illinois’ manufacturing meltdown and weak jobs growth are pummeling workers.

Though neighboring and Great Lakes states added a combined 200 factory jobs per workday on net in 2015, an average of 56 Illinois manufacturing workers, on net, received pink slips each workday during the same time.

The need for foundational change couldn’t be more evident in the Land of Lincoln.