Data centers—physical facilities that house computer servers, storage, and networking equipment—are experiencing a surge in growth driven by the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI). As data centers have spread across Illinois, public interest regarding their impacts on the economy, on energy costs, and on communities has intensified. Read the full report.
Support for labor unions remains at a historically high level, with 7 in 10 Americans approving of unions. Three-fifths say that unions strengthen the economy and that their decline has been bad for the country. Unions enjoy bipartisan, positive net favorability ratings. Read the full report.
This report covers important information about strikes in Illinois between 2021 and 2025. Workers in Illinois organized 123 strikes involving approximately 36,173 workers during this five-year period. For the purpose of this report, we only include a strike in the year in which it originated (e.g. a strike in 2021 that continued into 2022 will […]
The past two decades have been characterized by financial uncertainty. The 2008 Financial Crisis and the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic have had lasting impacts on the financial health of individuals in Illinois and across the country. At the same time, secular changes to employment relationships, such as declining real wages, reductions in employment benefits, and deteriorating […]
In 2025, the federal government increased tariffs—or taxes on items imported from other countries—to their highest level since the 1930s. The “effective tariff rate,” or revenue divided by imports, jumped from 3 percent to about 10 percent. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down most of the hikes in February 2026, the Trump administration responded […]
Population stagnation in Illinois has been a perennial concern over the last 15 years. After gaining nearly a million and a half new residents between 1990 and 2010 due to robust international migration, labor force growth, higher birth rates, and suburban expansion, Illinois has had flat population growth since 2010. Demographic data show that the […]
The experience of job loss and re-employment typically focuses on the unemployed population, those who experience a job separation and are actively seeking work. However, a significant share of people who lose their jobs are not captured in the unemployed population, as they are not actively seeking work. Additionally, the share of people considered outside […]
Illinois has a public service workers shortage. This includes thousands of unfilled teaching positions at local school districts. Labor shortages have been linked to inadequate pay and benefits as well as other issues like burnout. One proposed solution has been to reform the two-tiered retirement system for state and local government workers—half of whom are […]
Illinois has a tax system that requires working and middle-class families to pay higher shares of their incomes towards state and local taxes than high-income earners. State lawmakers have debated whether to amend the Illinois Constitution to allow for higher income taxes on annual net incomes over $1 million, with new revenues lock-boxed and dedicated […]
The Employment Quality Illinois (EQ-IL) Index indicates that job quality in the state is good for many workers, better for others, even best for some, but still poor for too many. Using a survey sample of over 5,600 employed workers in Illinois, a composite index was constructed of job quality in the state. While workers […]