Illinois
Forbes named the best employers in the U.S. Here are 54 from Illinois on the list
The state of Illinois is home to more than 50 of the best employers in the United States, according to annual rankings released recently by Forbes.
Here is a look at how the list was made and which Illinois businesses made the cut.
How did Forbes make the list of best employers?
Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista to survey over 217,000 employees nationwide. Respondents rated employers based on salary, advancement opportunities, work environment and training programs.
After tallying and analyzing the data, Forbes gave each employer a score and placed a total of 1,199 organizations on either a Best Large Employers 2025 list or a Best Midsized Employer 2025 list. The Best Large Employers list consisted of 701 companies nationwide, and the Best Midsized Employers list named 498 businesses.
Which Illinois businesses made the rankings?
The financial magazine listed the best large and midsized employers in the United States. The results show that 31 Illinois-based businesses are among the top country’s top large employees, while 23 Illinois businesses earned national recognition as mid-sized employers.
The Peoria Journal Star has listed the top Illinois employers in each category. The lists include national rank, business, industry, employee count and headquarters location.
Forbes list: Illinois’ Best Large Employers
- 62. Hyatt Hotels | travel and leisure | 51,000 | Chicago
- 113. Caterpillar | manufacturing, engineering | 113,000 | Deerfield
- 139. Grainger | retail and wholesale | 22,100 | Lake Forest
- 159. Northwestern Medicine | healthcare and social services | 30,000 | Chicago
- 162. Levy | restaurants | 10,001 | Chicago
- 215. AbbVie | drugs and biotechnology | 50,000 | North Chicago
- 242. Health Care Service Corporation | insurance | 28,000 | Chicago
- 267. CDW | IT software and services | 11,700 | Vernon Hills
- 298. State Farm | insurance | 67,000 | Bloomington
- 328. Gallagher Bassett | insurance | 5,000 | Rolling Meadows
- 338. Ace Hardware | retail and wholesale | 5,583 | Oak Brook
- 339. Motorola Solutions | telecommunications services, cable supplier | 11,130 | Chicago
- 350. Discover Financial Services | banking and financial services | 21,100 | Riverwoods
- 363. United Airlines | transportation and logistics | 103,300 | Chicago
- 367. ALDI | retail and wholesale | 25,000 | Batavia
- 419. Abbott Laboratories | healthcare equipment and services | 35,340 | Chicago
- 484. Zurich North America | insurance | 9,000 | Schaumburg
- 521. CAN Financial | insurance | 6,300 | Chicago
- 535. Baker Tilly | professional services | 44,000 | Chicago
- 563. RSM US | professional services | 16,600 | Chicago
- 572. Exelon | utilities | 19,962 | Chicago
- 578. Crowe | professional services | 5,001 | Chicago
- 590. JLL | business services and supplies | 35,366 | Chicago
- 600. John Deere | engineering, manufacturing | 83,000 | Moline
- 601. Walsh Group | construction, chemicals, raw materials | 8,000 | Chicago
- 613. Dover | engineering, manufacturing | 25,000 | Downers Grove
- 628. US Foods | food, soft beverages, alcohol and tobacco | 30,000 | Rosemont
- 652. Medline Industries | healthcare equipment and services | 30,000 | Northfield
- 671. Great Wolf Resorts | travel and leisure | 10,000 | Chicago
- 691. Kraft Heinz Company | food, soft beverages, alcohol and tobacco | 36,000 | Chicago
Forbes List: Illinois’ Best Midsized Employers
- 7. Morningstar | business services and supplies | 3,400 | Chicago
- 10. Silver Cross Hospital | healthcare and social services | 3,800 | New Lenox
- 26. Alzheimer’s Association | healthcare and social services | 2,000 | Chicago
- 34. Harper College | education | 1,316 | Palatine
- 41. Southern Illinois Healthcare | healthcare and social services | 4,000 | Carbondale
- 74. Argonne National Laboratory | drugs and biotechnology | 3,400 | Lemont
- 90. Eversana | drugs and biotechnology | 6,000 | Chicago
- 106. Ronald McDonald House Charities | healthcare and social services | 5,000 | Chicago
- 120. Illinois Institute of Technology | education | 1,450 | Chicago
- 159. Kirkland and Ellis | professional services | 6,500 | Chicago
- 162. Echo Global Logistics | transportation and logistics | 2,600 | Chicago
- 165. Illinois Bone and Joint Institute | healthcare and social services | 1,100 | Des Plaines
- 222. Ed Napleton Automotive Group | automotive | 3,500 | Oakbrook Terrace
- 252. Wintrust | banking and financial services | 5,521 | Rosemont
- 298. Beltone | health care equipment and services | 1,093 | Chicago
- 304. Zebra Technologies | semiconductors, electronics, electrical engineering | 9,750 | Lincolnshire
- 318. AAR | aerospace and defense | 4,125 | Wood Dale
- 330. Hub Group | transportation and logistics | 5,950 | Oak Brook
- 390. Sargent and Lundy | professional services | 3,500 | Chicago
- 392. Fresh Thyme | retail and wholesale | 1,657 | Downers Grove
- 411. AIT Worldwide Logistics | transportation and logistics | 3,700 | Itasca
- 450. Alera Group | insurance | 3,500 | Deerfield
- 493. Hollister | healthcare equipment and services | 3,200 | Libertyville
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS) — After a brief lull in the weather on Friday, now another winter storm is setting its sights on central Illinois. Come Saturday, our next round of Winter is set to arrive. A new weather maker sweeps across the Upper Midwest, causing more snow to develop by mid-morning on Saturday. A Winter Weather Advisory has been issued from 7AM Saturday through 8 PM Saturday evening. The snow will pick up intensity by late-morning and last through the afternoon into the early evening hours before ending. This new weather system will follow a path very similar to the previous storm system and spread a swath of moderate to locally heavy snow. Before the snow wraps up Saturday evening, expect another 2″-4″ for much of central Illinois, with afternoon high temperatures bitterly cold in the mid-teens.
But the worst blast of cold air comes in Saturday evening into Sunday. Frigid Arctic air surges down from Canada causing temperatures to really tumble, driving in the coldest weather we’ve had in a long time and certainly the coldest so far this season. A Cold Weather Advisory is issued from 8 PM Saturday through Noon on Sunday. Sunday morning will be dangerously cold with wind chills around 20 to 25 BELOW ZERO. With wind chills this extreme, it doesn’t take long to suffer from frostbite or hypothermia. Please stay inside to keep warm, but if you do need to venture out, limit the time you spend outdoors, and make sure to cover up all exposed skin by wearing a hat, scarf, and gloves. Sunday afternoon features lots of sunshine, but despite the sunshine, temperatures will be brutally cold and frigid with high temperatures stuck in the low single numbers while wind chills remain well below zero.
Expect more extremely chilly weather on Monday with wind chills still ranging from 5 to 15 BELOW ZERO in the morning and afternoon highs only reaching into the 20s. Then temperatures will finally start to warm up, and we should climb out of the deep freeze with highs in the mid to upper 30s on Tuesday.
Gov. JB Pritzker signed a new law Friday making Illinois the newest state allowing medically assisted dying in terminally ill residents.
Known as “Deb’s Law,” it allows eligible terminally ill adults with a prognosis to live six months or less to request a prescription from their doctor that would allow them to die on their own terms.
The legislation was narrowly approved by the Illinois Senate in October after the Illinois House passed it in May.
People on both sides of the debate over the controversial legislation lobbied the governor up until the last minute. Medical aid in dying, also called assisted suicide or dying with dignity, is already legal in 12 states. Eight more are considering similar legislation.
“I have been deeply impacted by the stories of Illinoisans or their loved ones that have suffered from a devastating terminal illness, and I have been moved by their dedication to standing up for freedom and choice at the end of life in the midst of personal heartbreak,” Pritzker said in a news release after signing the bill.
Pritzker’s signature makes Illinois the first state in the Midwest to allow medically assisted death.
Advocates for the law say it allows adults to die on their own terms when survival is already not an option. Opponents say the bill legalizes “state-sanctioned suicide.”
The law requires two doctors to determine a patient has a terminal disease and will die within six months. The medication provided would need to be requested both orally and in written documentation, and will have to be self-administered. The law also requires all patients opting into medical assistance in dying to have been full informed about all end-of-life care options, including comfort care, hospice, palliative care and pain control.
The law is named for Deb Robertson, a former social worker from Lombard who had an aggressive case of neuroendocrine carcinoma. She began advocating for medical aid in dying in 2022 and has been a central figure in the movement.
Please note: The above video is from a previous report
Illinois
Advocates, opponents seek to sway Gov. JB Pritzker on medical aid in dying legislation passed by Illinois General Assembly
Illinois could soon join a growing list of states where terminally ill patients would be allowed to take life-ending medication prescribed by a doctor.
The Illinois Senate narrowly approved the “medical aid in dying” legislation in October, after the Illinois House passed it in May, and the legislation is now sitting on Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk.
Pritzker has not said if he’ll sign it, and the controversial legislation has people on both sides trying to bend the governor’s ear.
Medical aid in dying, also called assisted suicide or dying with dignity, is legal in 12 states, with eight others considering similar legislation.
If Pritzker allows the “End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act” passed by the Illinois General Assembly to become law, Illinois could be the first state in the Midwest to allow medical aid in dying.
Suzy Flack, whose son Andrew died of cancer, is among the advocates urging the governor to sign the bill.
Diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2017 in his home state of Illinois, three years later Andrew moved to California, where medical aid in dying is legal, and chose to end his life in 2022.
“He died on his own terms, peacefully. We were all there to see it and embrace him at that moment, and it was really a beautiful thing,” Suzy said. “His last words were, ‘I’m happy. Please sign this. Allow people in Illinois this option.’”
Illinois is on the brink of joining a growing number of states that allow doctors to prescribe a mixture of lethal medication for terminally ill patients.
Outside the governor’s Chicago office on Thursday, many disability advocates, religious leaders, lawmakers, and doctors have called on Pritzker to veto the bill that would legalize what they call state-sanctioned suicide
“The question becomes where do you draw the line in the medical ethics dilemmas?” one physician who identified himself as Dr. Pete said. “We don’t need to go to this crossing of a red line of actually providing a means to directly end life.”
Republican Illinois state Sen. Chris Balkema said he “would really appreciate it if the governor would veto this bill.”
“My plea is that we veto this; come back with language that is constructive on both sides,” he said.
Pritzker has he is reviewing the legislation and is listening to advocates on both sides before deciding whether to sign it.
“It’s a hard issue, and I don’t want anybody to think making up your mind about this is very easy. It’s not. There’s a lot to consider, but most of all it’s about compassion,” he said. “There’s evidence and information on both sides that leads me to think seriously about what direction to go.”
The Illinois legislation would require two doctors to determine that a patient has a terminal disease and will die within six months. The medication provided to terminally ill patients would need to be requested both orally and in written form, and would have to be self-administered.
The bill was sent to Pritzker on Nov. 25, and he has 60 days from then to either sign it, amend it and send it back to lawmakers, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature.
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