Prairie State Wire

Governor for Illinois candidate Darren Bailey slammed incumbent Gov. J.B. Pritzker for his failed business policies.

Touting to have been a champion for small businesses in the General Assembly, Bailey pledged to restore a better environment for Illinois businesses.

"The JB Pritzker and Joe Biden economy is crippling business, raising costs, and straining communities," Bailey said. "I will continue to push for relief to our businesses as Governor so Illinois can be a place to open new doors, rather than closing them down."

Small businesses have seen an increase in laying off workers or not increasing the number of jobs after not recovering to pre-pandemic levels, The Center Square reported.

“Nearly half (49%) of those in a hiring freeze now said they were hiring earlier this year, but shifted gears due to economic factors, including general inflation, labor costs, and fears of a recession,” an Alignable report said. 

According to Alignable, 63% of businesses noted they were unwilling to take on other new workers and 10% of those were laying off employees. 

“This decline is quite significant, as it's 18 percentage points higher than it was in July (at just 45%). Beyond that, the percentage reducing their staff jumped 6% to 10% this month from just 4% in July,” the report reads. "Beyond the skyrocketing price of labor, only 23% of small business owners say they have fully recovered financially from the worst years of COVID, down 2% from July and down 20% from December 2021. This 23% recovery rate is the lowest the Alignable Research Center has seen in more than a year. Looking only at August revenue, 51% of all small businesses generated half or less of their pre-COVID monthly earnings, up 13% from 38% in July.” 

Alignable's September Hiring Report was based on a poll from Aug. 13 through Sept. 6. There were 5,618 small business employers who participated in the survey.

Counties across the state lost substantial revenue due to Covid protocols shutting down large parts of society including small businesses and schools. In DuPage County alone, DuPage County Board Member Bob Larsen noted that while there has been some relief from Washington, "but not for lost revenue from taxes and fees," Choose DuPage reported.

Chicago’s downtown has suffered the fourth worst with a post-Covid comeback with only 41% of its business activity returning. The only cities that performed worse were San Francisco, Cleveland, Portland, and Detroit, according to downtownrecovery.com