PEORIA, Ill. – Believe it or not, the head of the Illinois Manufacturers Association says state lawmakers and Governor JB Pritzker have actually done some things to make doing business in Illinois better.
While at a Peoria stop on a statewide bus tour called “Makers on the Move” celebrating manufacturing, CEO Mark Denzler says tax credit programs and the reworking of them has helped, but there’s more to do.
“We need to fix workers compensation and make it more…efficient,” said Denzler. “Things like property taxes are significantly higher here.”
Denzler says among what’s great for manufacturers in Illinois: a central location, railroad and waterway access along with a number of airports, and institutions like Bradley University and Illinois Central College. He says Illinois is well poised to lead the nation in manufacturing.
Meanwhile, Denzler says if you want a manufacturing job in Illinois or elsewhere, there are plenty of them to be had.
“Nationally, there are more than 600,000 open manufacturing jobs,” said Denzler. “For comparison sake, before the pandemic, the highest recorded number was 437,000. So, we’re about 50 percent higher than when the pandemic started.
Denzler claims manufacturing is still the largest sector of Illinois’ economy. He says there’s still a very old misconception that manufacturing jobs are, in his words, dark, dirty, and dangerous, and nothing could be further from the truth.
“Whether you’re a single mom or a single dad, we have to attract more people,” said Denzler. “The majority of the workforce is older, white, male. We have to make sure that women get in, or disabled individuals…or ex-offenders, or returning veterans. We’re here to say there’s a job for everybody in manufacturing.”
The bus stop was at Peoria Production Services off Townline Road. The tour started last week and will continue the rest of this week.
