Illinois dropped eleven spots in a national survey of the best places to do business.
The CNBC surveyranks Illinois 37thoverall.
But the state gets especially poor marks when it comes to the cost of doing business - Illinois comes in at 44th out of 50 states.
Mark Denzler, with the Illinois Manufacturer's Association, says it's an accurate description. There's no doubt, he says, that Illinois faces challenges.
"We have the second highest unemployment rate in the country, we have a high cost system of taxes in the state of Illinois, our workers compensation costs continue to be very high despite some good reforms that happened in 2011," said Denzler.
Denzler adds:
"We also have a lot of things that are working in Illinois. We have a great workforce, we're centrally located, we have an outstanding transportation system that's recognized in this survey."
Illinois' ranked 5th for both infrastructure and technological innovation.
Denzler says to improve its ranking and its reputation, Illinois needs to do something about its $100 billion pension problem.
Illinois Public Radio's Amanda Vinicky contributed to this report.