SE Illinois News

Major companies have announced the relocation of their headquarters and this is due to inaction and bad actions from Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Darren Bailey, GOP candidate for governor said.

Bailey, who promised to restore the state's economy, urges new leadership.

"People in Southeast Illinois are all too familiar with people leaving for Indiana," Bailey said. "The reason people are leaving Illinois is because of our state’s hostile business environment. The result is job loss and population loss. JB Pritzker refuses to talk about what is happening under his watch because his policies are the reason these companies are leaving. We can’t keep pretending these problems don’t exist. It is time to confront them head-on. JB Pritzker is unwilling to do the job. It is time we had a governor who will implement the policies we know will reverse the mass exodus from our state. States like Florida and Texas have provided the blueprint to economic growth. We need a governor who will follow their lead and turn our economy around."

This week, the Wall Street Journal released a video that summarized the closure of significant corporate facilities. 

“After years of operating in Illinois, three major companies—Boeing, Caterpillar and Citadel—are moving their headquarters out of the state. In this video, WSJ looks at the economic and political implications,” the Wall Street Journal said in its preview of the video.

The most well-known manufacturer of airplanes, Boeing, declared that it would depart the area starting in May, according to NBC 5 Chicago. The enormous aerospace industry, which began in Washington, relocated to Chicago in 2001. More than 16,000 jobs, or more than 10% of the company's workforce, were lost due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Caterpillar announced on June 14 that its corporate headquarters will relocate to Irving, Texas. Jim Umpleby, chairman and chief executive officer of Caterpillar, said that the choice was taken with the company's "strategic interest" in mind, Chicago Tribune reported. The company has said that it would have no effect on the more than 200 staff at the company headquarters. 

Citadel Securities claims that security concerns played a major role in the decision to move from Chicago to Miami. 

“The firms are having difficulty recruiting top talent from across the world to Chicago given the rising and senseless violence in the city,” Zia Ahmed, a Citadel spokesman, told The New York Times. “Talent wants to live in cities where they feel safe.”