Illinois companies announced 444 mass layoffs in July. LSC Communications Transport in Bolingbrook, also known as Enru Logistics, accounted for over one-third of job losses.
Illinois companies announced 444 mass layoffs during July, with 180 in Bolingbrook after commercial printing company LSC Communications announced mass layoffs at its transportation center.
LSC Communications is a spin-off of the former RR Donnelley, known as a phone book, magazine and catalog printer. LSC was sold in 2024 and its mailing operations were sold off in April, but that sale excluded the Bolingbrook transportation center. The center, known as Enru Logistics, is permanently laying off the 180 workers on Sept. 5.
Manufacturing company TreeHouse Foods Inc. cut 80 workers following the announcement it was closing a Chicago facility.
Standard layoffs accounted for 310 of the Illinois job losses, more than two-thirds of the mass layoffs reported in July while business closures impacted an additional 80 workers. The layoff cause for the remaining 54 jobs was not provided.
The employers did not indicate whether the remaining job cuts were related to business closures or standard layoffs, but the reports show about 87% of these mass layoffs will be permanent.
Illinois employers are mandated to file monthly mass layoff reports under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act if they have 75 or more full-time employees. While the reports serve as a gauge for job trends, they are not a perfect indicator of broader economic health.
Still, Illinois leaders could do a lot to improve the state’s business climate, including: reducing Illinois’ nation-leading state and local tax burden, beginning with its now No. 1 in the U.S. average property tax rate; lowering its third-highest corporate income taxes; and lowering the state’s 7.85% maximum unemployment insurance tax rate.
