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Illinois jobs and job market: layoffs, colleges and workforce help

Illinois’s unemployment rate is 4.6%. 13,647 open professional jobs are listed here. Employers filed 112 layoff notices in the last 12 months. Choose a county or city for the same picture closer to home.

Independent page. Not from or affiliated with the State of Illinois.

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Illinois economy

  • 4.6%

    unemployment, Sep 2026

    4.5% the month before

  • 6,468,204

    in the labor force

    Source: BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics

  • 12,692,653

    people in Illinois

    Source: U.S. Census Bureau

  • $81,702

    median household income

    Source: Census ACS

  • 43%

    of workers in white-collar occupations

    Management, business, financial and professional; Census ACS

Illinois outlook: Steady

Built from public Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census figures. It describes the area, not any one employer in it.

  • Private-sector jobs up 1.6% from 2022 to 2025
  • Population down 0.6% from 2020 to 2025
  • Unemployment 4.2%, down 0.1 points from a year ago
  • Sectors adding the most jobs: health care (+86,956 jobs), hotels & food (+25,731 jobs)
  • Sectors losing the most jobs: admin & staffing (−41,583 jobs), information (−8,061 jobs)

Local job-market news

Recent headlines about layoffs, AI and jobs in Illinois. Each link goes to the publisher.

Learn and get funded in Illinois

Illinois layoffs

  • 112

    Layoff notices, last 12 months

  • 20,089

    workers named

    A floor: states may leave out counts

  • 85

    employers

Layoff notices filed in Illinois, newest first
Notice dateEmployerCity or countyWorkersTypeSource
Ferrara Candy CompanyChicago154ClosureState record
Ferrara Candy CompanyChicago154ClosureState record
Medline IndustriesNorthfield304—State record
Koppers Carbon Materials LLCStickney60ClosureState record
The Allstaff GroupGurnee659—State record
Cardiovascular Institute of the South, LLCNaperville120—State record
Cardiovascular Institute of the South, LLCElmhurst62—State record
Cardiovascular Institute of the South, LLCWarrenville33—State record
ES Suites HotelEast Walton Chicago40ClosureState record
Provider Partners Care Management, L.P.Springfield43—State record

All layoff notices in the state

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Employers hiring most in Illinois

Employers with the most open professional roles on our job board right now.

  1. Accenture236 open roles
  2. Publicis Groupe141 open roles
  3. Confidential134 open roles
  4. AbbVie123 open roles
  5. Mars115 open roles
  6. State of Illinois114 open roles
  7. Amazon112 open roles
  8. Sargent & Lundy95 open roles
  9. Michael Page87 open roles
  10. Arthur J. Gallagher82 open roles
  11. Creative Financial Staffing81 open roles
  12. Gallagher Bassett80 open roles

Largest employers headquartered in Illinois

Employee counts with a year are published figures (Wikidata). Other sizes are estimates from our company directory, not payroll counts.

Higher education in Illinois

  • 86

    public and private non-profit colleges

    Source: IPEDS, U.S. Department of Education

  • about 737,000

    students enrolled

    Estimated from size bands

Largest colleges in Illinois

Largest colleges in Illinois
CollegeCityTypeStudents
DePaul UniversityChicagoPrivate non-profit 4-year20,000+
Illinois State UniversityNormalPublic 4-year20,000+
Northwestern UniversityEvanstonPrivate non-profit 4-year20,000+
University of Illinois ChicagoChicagoPublic 4-year20,000+
University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignChampaignPublic 4-year20,000+
Loyola University ChicagoChicagoPrivate non-profit 4-year10,000–19,999
Northern Illinois UniversityDekalbPublic 4-year10,000–19,999
Southern Illinois University EdwardsvilleEdwardsvillePublic 4-year10,000–19,999
Southern Illinois University-CarbondaleCarbondalePublic 4-year10,000–19,999
University of ChicagoChicagoPrivate non-profit 4-year10,000–19,999
Aurora UniversityAuroraPrivate non-profit 4-year5,000–9,999
Columbia College ChicagoChicagoPrivate non-profit 4-year5,000–9,999

All 86 Illinois colleges

Workforce development and job centers

The public workforce board and American Job Centers serving Illinois. They offer free help with job search, training and filing for benefits.

Laid off in Illinois? How to file for unemployment in Illinois (steps, weekly amount and the appeal deadline).

82 American Job Centers in Illinois

Job fairs and business events in Illinois

Hiring events, career workshops, small-business counseling and startup events from chambers, job centers, workforce boards, colleges and economic-development groups in Illinois.

Conferences in Illinois

Industry conferences and trade shows held in Illinois, the ones worth a trip for hiring managers and job seekers. 79 with dates announced.

Showing 24 of 111 conferences, 79 with dates announced.

All conferences

Illinois counties

Each county page has its own unemployment, layoffs, job openings, employers, colleges and job centers.

Show all 102

Illinois cities

Cities with open jobs, layoff notices, a job center or a college.

Show all 288

Laid off or looking for work in Illinois?

See what to do first, what Illinois unemployment benefits pay, and the jobs open near you.

See your options after a layoff

Sources: Census Bureau and BLS for population, income and unemployment; layoff notices from Illinois’s published record; job counts from our live job board, taken from employers’ own career sites; IPEDS for colleges; CareerOneStop for workforce boards and job centers. Illinois unemployment benefits and severance rules.

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