How many people are laid off in Illinois each month?
Data updated December 4, 2024
About 65 thousand in September 2024. This includes all terminations of employment by an employer — called layoffs and discharges — such as permanent layoffs, temporary layoffs, and terminations because of mergers, downsizing, closings, or employee performance.
Showing data for
65K
people were laid off or discharged in Illinois in September 2024
554K
layoffs and discharges in Illinois in 2024 so far
Layoffs are a constant in the labor market — from 2001 to 2019, there was an average of 938,000 layoffs and discharges a year in Illinois. Increases in layoffs often reflect recessions or other economic disruption. For example, record-setting layoffs and discharges occurred in March and April of 2020 because of COVID-19. So far in 2024, layoffs and discharges total 554,000 in Illinois, which is 6.7% lower than the same period in 2023.
In Illinois, layoffs were 6.7% lower by September 2024 than by September 2023.
Cumulative monthly layoffs and discharges in Illinois, seasonally adjusted
Another way to consider this data is to look at the layoff and discharge rate. This puts layoffs and discharges in the context of the total number of people working by showing layoffs and discharges as a percent of employed people who were laid off during the given time period. This rate allows for better comparisons across time, industries, and places by adjusting for differences in the size of the working population.
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Illinois’s layoff rate decreased between August and September 2024
Seasonally adjusted US and Illinois monthly layoff and discharge rates, Dec. 2000–Sep. 2024
In September 2024, 1.1% of people employed in Illinois were laid off or discharged, a lower rate than August. Compared to the national numbers, the September 2024 rate in Illinois was the same, meaning the same share of the Illinois working population was laid off or dismissed in September 2024 compared to the US overall.
Average layoff and discharge rates are also useful to consider because they smooth out short-term fluctuations and clarify long-term trends.
In September 2024, Illinois’s 12-month average layoff rate was the same as the US average.
12-month rolling average layoff and discharge rates in the US and Illinois, Nov. 2001–Sep. 2024
During the first 20 years of data, the 12-month average layoff and discharge rate in the US peaked at the end of the Great Recession in June 2009 at 1.8% and during the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020 at 2.4%. Illinois’ 12-month average layoff rate was 0.3 percentage points lower than the US rate in June 2009 and 0.3 percentage points lower in May 2020.
As of September 2024, Illinois’s 12-month average layoff rate was the same as the US overall. At 1.0%, Illinois’s average layoff and discharge rate decreased 0.2 percentage points compared to one year prior (October 2022–September 2023 average). The rate was the same as compared to two years prior (October 2021–September 2022 average).
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Methodology
USAFacts standardizes data, in areas such as time and demographics, to make it easier to understand and compare.
The analysis was generated with the help of AI and reviewed by USAFacts for accuracy.
Page sources
USAFacts endeavors to share the most up-to-date information available. We sourced the data on this page directly from government agencies; however, the intervals at which agencies publish updated data vary.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics
Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey
