Illinois Black Chamber taps remoting.work for 36,000-job goal by 2031

The Illinois State Black Chamber of Commerce has chosen remoting.work as a strategic partner to help small and minority-owned businesses scale and create 36,000 local jobs in Illinois by 2031. The effort is aimed at easing staffing barriers that keep many firms from growing into employer businesses.

Why it matters: - Illinois has about 1.4 million small businesses, and they account for 99.6% of all businesses in the state. - Those firms employ nearly 2.4 million residents. - About 447,000 Illinois businesses are minority-owned, and roughly 399,000 operate without employees. - The partnership is meant to help more small businesses add capacity, grow revenue, and eventually hire locally in Illinois.

What happened: - The Illinois State Black Chamber of Commerce selected remoting.work as a strategic partner to help create 36,000 local jobs across Illinois by 2031. - The announcement was made Aug. 31, 2026, in Memphis, Tennessee. - The chamber said the partnership is designed to support small and minority-owned businesses that face barriers to hiring and revenue growth. - Larry Ivory, president and CEO of ILBCC, said the partnership is intended to give small businesses access to services that support capital and revenue generation.

The details: - Illinois has about 189,000 Black-owned businesses, and only 5,943 are employer businesses. - A Black Business Survey from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity found 66% of respondents were microenterprises or sole proprietors. - Survey respondents cited implementing technology, marketing products or services, attracting new customers, and diversifying their client base as top barriers. - The partnership will use remoting.work’s Employer of Record and Workforce-as-a-Service platform to connect businesses with vetted full-time or fractional remote workers from lower-cost global economies. - The company says some roles can start at as low as $6 per hour from lower-cost economies in the interim. - remoting.work says the model can help businesses build revenue before they are ready to hire locally in Illinois. - Data cited from the U.S. Census Bureau shows businesses with 1 to 4 employees average $400,000 in annual revenue, compared with $50,000 for single-operator businesses. - The release says that if 10% of the 399,000 non-employer small businesses in Illinois become employer businesses and reach the $400,000 average, that would add $15.96 billion in new revenue to the state’s small business economy. - The release says higher revenue would also increase local supply-chain spending and support future hiring. - Dr. Gregory Blumenthal, director of communication at remoting.work, said the platform is intended to help businesses reduce failure risk and grow revenue so they can hire locally in Illinois.

Between the lines: - The partnership is targeting a core constraint for many small firms: they may have growth opportunities, but not enough margin to pay for the staff needed to pursue them. - The strategy uses lower-cost remote labor as a bridge, not a replacement, for local hiring. - The economic logic in the release is straightforward: more staffing support can help businesses become employer firms, and employer firms tend to generate much more revenue than sole proprietorships.

What's next: - ILBCC and remoting.work plan to work with Illinois small and minority-owned businesses to expand operational capacity and revenue. - The stated long-term target is 36,000 jobs in Illinois by 2031. - The partnership will focus on helping businesses transition into employer businesses over time.