NW Illinois News

After a full year since the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the nation and shut-down mandates began, Illinois is far from recovering as the state suffers from the highest unemployment rates in the Midwest.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker continues to be under fire for contributing to the 500,000 Illinoisans still out of work, and 35% of the state's small businesses still closed, as he refuses to lift restrictions and mandates across the state. 

"The Illinois lockdowns didn’t work but they did destroy thousands of small businesses. Open up the State, the time is now," Rep. Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport) wrote in a March 30 Facebook post.

The only other state that has more small businesses still closed because of the pandemic is Michigan, an Illinois Policy Institute article said. The current rate of small businesses closed in Illinois is 35.3%, as compared to Michigan that has 38.2% of small businesses still closed, the article showed in a graphic. All other surrounding states have a small business closure under 30%.

According to Opportunity Insights’ Economic Tracker, an industry tracker project by Harvard and Brown universities, Illinois industries are listed as follows: "In the transportation industry, 30.1% of small businesses remain closed, eighth-most in the nation; among professional and business services small businesses, 23% remain closed, ninth-most in the nation; in the educational and health services industry, 37.6% of small businesses are closed, sixth-most in the nation; 50.7% of small leisure and hospitality businesses are closed, 15th-most in the nation; of food and accommodation small businesses, 50.2% are closed, 16th-most in the nation; and in the retail sector, 33.8% of small businesses are closed, eighth-most in the nation."

In another Illinois Policy Institute article, it said that Pritzker is currently pursuing nine new taxes totally almost $1 billion, including ones that will hurt small businesses more, instead of working to help the local and state economy. Though Pritzker said the pursuit of these taxes are to "close loopholes" in the system, Illinois Chamber of Commerce and Republicans said this is not the case, and these new taxes may cause more small business to close.