Magnet for Country's Brightest Minds

In response to Governor Pritzker's Executive Order #3, the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity developed a report with suggestions on how to prepare Illinois workers for careers and how best to connect job seekers with employers. The report's recommendations draw on evidence-based practices, promising innovations, and collaborative input from leaders across the state, with the goal of ensuring that businesses, individuals, and communities across the state have the opportunity to prosper and contribute to the state's economic growth.

192 Higher Education Institutions Statewide

• Over 825,000 Midwest Higher Education Graduates Annually
• 6.6 Million Person Labor Force & 38% with Associate’s Degree or Better
• University of Illinois Graduates More Engineers each year than MIT, Stanford, and Cal Tech Combined
• #1 Metro for Big Ten Alumni - Choose Chicago
• #1 Marketing Graduate Program - Kellogg School of Management
• #1 City for Recent Grads - GradSpot.com
• 2 Top 20 Universities in U.S. - University of Chicago & Northwestern University
• Top 5 Computer Science/Engineering at University of Illinois - U.S. News
• Top 5 for Engineering Research Expenditures - U.S. News
• Top 5 for Best Prepared Students - Wall Street Journal
• Among Top 10 Universities in the World - University of Chicago

PROXIMITY TO NATION’S TOP TALENT

Nearly 500,000 Big Ten Alumni in Illinois

Alumni by University

• Illinois (Cook County) 150,353
• Indiana 92,000
• Northwestern 69,000
• Iowa 28,700
• Purdue 26,652
• Michigan State 25,000
• Wisconsin 24,650
• Michigan 23,000
• Minnesota 5,600
• Nebraska 1,400
• Penn State 4,640
• Ohio State 8,582
• Rutgers 600
• Maryland 2,500
• Notre Dame 20,000
• Johns Hopkins 2,000
  

 Source: Alumni Associations. Johns Hopkins affiliate member of  BIG TEN in Men’s Lacrosse