Although Illinois hosts corporate headquarters of many large companies, its economy lags in blue-collar job opportunities.

Employers in the Land of Lincoln announced 650 mass layoffs in November, according to the November edition of the Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, report. This report marks the first time since July 2015 that there wasn’t single mass-layoff announcement in the manufacturing sector. The types of jobs lost were spread across...

Chicago and Illinois have plenty of their own problems on the manufacturing front, with issues such as high property taxes and workers’ compensation costs driving production facilities to other states. But U.S. trade policy regarding sugar isn’t helping matters. For each one sugar growing and harvesting job saved through high U.S. sugar tariffs, nearly three confectionery manufacturing jobs are lost, according to the International Trade Administration.

Enjoy Life Foods relocates manufacturing and distribution facility from Chicago suburbs to Indiana.

Illinois’ June WARN report shows 600 mass layoffs for the state in June, with 44 jobs lost in manufacturing, an improvement over May’s 1,300 layoffs and 500 manufacturing job losses.

Illinois’ March layoff report shows that almost a quarter of the 900 Illinoisans who will lose their jobs are manufacturing workers.

Employers in Illinois filed notice with the state in January of hundreds of layoffs.

Enjoy Life Foods plans to move its lone Illinois manufacturing facility and up to 150 jobs to southern Indiana this year.