Illinois Apprenticeship Programs
As of September 2026, Illinois operates one of the larger registered-apprenticeship systems in the country: 38,000 active apprentices in 1,400 programs, with completion pay near $32.00/hour.
- Active apprentices
- 38,000
- National rank
- #6 / 51
- Completion rate
- 60.2%
- Completion wage
- $32
Illinois ranks #6 of 51 jurisdictions by active registered apprentices - about 4.5% of all U.S. registered apprentices. Its 60.2% completion rate sits 2 pts above the 58.2% national average, and apprentices who finish raise their pay by 83% - from $18 to $32 an hour.
Apprenticeship filing desk
Jurisdiction IL · Illinois
Illinois registered-apprenticeship filing: 38,000 active apprentices (rank 6/51), 1,400 programs, 60.2% completion.
- BOOK-LARGE 38,000
- RANK-UPPER #6
- PROG-MID 1,400
- COMP-MID 60.2%
- WAGE-STRONG +83%
- SHARE-MID 4.5%
- NEW-FY 9,500
Nearest enrollment peer: Wisconsin (4,000 apprentice gap)
U.S. Department of Labor registered-apprenticeship filing stamps for this jurisdiction. Read: apprenticeships vs college
Where Illinois sits among all 51 jurisdictions
Enrollment by jurisdiction; Illinois sits in the top tercile. Inventory size is not a quality ranking.
Illinois vs all states by active apprentices
Where this state's DOL registered-apprenticeship enrollment sits among every tracked jurisdiction
38,000 6th of 51 higher than 45 of 51 states
States and territories, banded by active apprentices
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Department of Labor registered-apprenticeship data · 2026-09-25
Source: U.S. Department of Labor registered-apprenticeship data, compiled by PlainWorkforce.
Reading Illinois's numbers
What stands out in this state's DOL filing, most distinctive first. Every figure below is computed from the state's own row in the dataset.
The signature stat: intake
What separates Illinois is a slow front door: new registrations equal just 25% of the active base, a slower pipeline than 96% of states.
Where the scale sits
38,000 active apprentices rank 6 of 51 nationally, 4.5% of all registered enrollment.
Above-average completion
60.2% of apprentices finish their programs, 2 points above the 58.2% national average — the clearest quality signal in this filing.
Fewer, larger programs
The state's 1,400 registered programs average 27.1 apprentices each, above the 23.6 national norm — enrollment concentrates in larger sponsors rather than spreading across many small ones.
Typical wage progression
Pay runs $17.50/hour at the start and $32.00 at completion — a 82.9% progression near the 82.7% norm.
Illinois's largest registered-apprenticeship occupations, ranked by AI-exposure score, most sit well below the 37% occupation-wide average (the dotted line), which is exactly why the trades are AI-resilient. Bars link to the full occupation profile where tracked.
- Electrician 13%
- Operating Engineer 25%
- Plumber 27%
- Carpenter 28%
- Pipefitter -
AI-exposure scores are PlainWorkforce's analysis of O*NET task data; the 37% line is the average across all 832 tracked occupations. Lower = more AI-resilient.
Frequently asked questions
How many apprentices does Illinois have?
38,000 active registered apprentices — rank 6 of 51 jurisdictions — spread over about 1,400 registered programs.
What is the apprenticeship completion rate in Illinois?
60.2% — 2 points above the 58.2% national average, one of the stronger completion records among the states.
How much do apprentices earn in Illinois?
Entry wages average $17.50/hour, rising to about $32.00 at completion (82.9% growth).
What are the top apprenticeship trades in Illinois?
The dataset's largest registered-apprenticeship occupations for Illinois are Electrician, Plumber, Pipefitter, Carpenter, Operating Engineer — construction trades dominate registered apprenticeship in every state.
Why is Illinois's apprentice pipeline slow?
The data shows the symptom, not the cause: 9,500 new registrations against 38,000 active apprentices is a 25% intake ratio, bottom-tercile nationally. The dataset does not record why sponsors register fewer new apprentices here.
Compare other states
What to do with this
Use Illinois' apprenticeship numbers above to plan a specific trade path, not just compare states.
- Compare an apprenticeship path against a college degree using real wage and growth numbers. Apprenticeships vs college
- The full occupation directory covers wage and AI exposure for any specific trade. Browse all occupations
- The occupations projected to add the most jobs through 2034 are worth a look. Fastest-growing occupations
Apprenticeship figures come from U.S. Department of Labor Registered Apprenticeship data; enrollment and completion vary by program and year.
Every figure on PlainWorkforce is rendered directly from BLS/O*NET source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Enrollment and wage figures are rounded. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these figures, or report a data error. Data current as of U.S. Department of Labor, Registered Apprenticeship.
Sources: U.S. Department of Labor, Registered Apprenticeship (active apprentices, registered programs, completion rates, and wages by state), O*NET (occupation task data, for the linked AI-exposure scores).