Moving to Central Illinois
Moving into Central Illinois means understanding this region's real, honestly disclosed two-sided economic stories -- Peoria's Caterpillar headquarters departure alongside its still-substantial local workforce, and Rivian's Normal-plant stability alongside McLean County's broader manufacturing-employment decline -- rather than assuming either an unqualified boom or bust narrative.
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Learn moreRivian's Real, Two-Sided Story in Normal
Rivian's electric-vehicle manufacturing plant in Normal, built on the site of a former Mitsubishi Motors North America plant, genuinely anchors part of the region's growth narrative -- but this record discloses the real tension honestly: while Rivian's Normal manufacturing workforce was specifically spared from the company's October 2025 layoff round, McLean County-wide manufacturing employment fell roughly 27% from 2024 to 2025 (11,090 to 8,130 jobs) amid several earlier 2025 Rivian layoff rounds, and Rivian stopped publicly disclosing its Normal-plant headcount as of October 2025. Movers relocating for Rivian-tied employment specifically should confirm current, role-specific hiring status directly rather than relying on the broader 'boomtown' framing alone.
Peoria: Caterpillar's Departure, and What Remains
Caterpillar moved its global headquarters out of Peoria to Deerfield, Illinois in 2017 -- ending more than 90 years based there -- and later out of Illinois entirely to Irving, Texas in 2022. This record states that departure plainly. What remains is still real and substantial: Caterpillar employs roughly 12,000 people across the Peoria area, the largest concentration of Caterpillar employees anywhere in the world, and healthcare has become the region's largest and fastest-growing employment sector (roughly 18% of regional jobs versus manufacturing's roughly 13%), anchored by OSF HealthCare's own downtown-Peoria headquarters.
Regional Airports and I-55/I-57/I-74 Access
Springfield, Bloomington-Normal, Champaign-Urbana, and Peoria each maintain their own regional commercial airport, giving this region genuinely better air-travel self-sufficiency than several other Illinois or Ohio regions in this project built around a single hub. I-55 (Bloomington-Normal, running toward Chicago and St. Louis), I-57 (Champaign-Urbana, Kankakee, running north-south), and I-74 (Peoria, Champaign, Danville, running east-west) organize the region's highway geography.
Key takeaways
- Rivian's Normal manufacturing jobs were spared an October 2025 layoff round even as McLean County's broader manufacturing employment fell roughly 27% that year -- confirm current, role-specific hiring status directly for any Rivian-tied relocation.
- Caterpillar's global headquarters left Peoria in 2017 (and Illinois entirely in 2022), but the company still employs roughly 12,000 people there, the largest Caterpillar concentration in the world.
- Healthcare, not manufacturing, is now Peoria's largest and fastest-growing employment sector.
- Springfield, Bloomington-Normal, Champaign-Urbana, and Peoria each maintain their own regional airport, a genuine air-travel advantage over single-hub-dependent regions.
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