If you're considering a move to Rockford, Illinois, there are a few topics you'll be particularly interested in hearing about. One of them, obviously, is real estate prices. The second is business. By gaining an overview of the business sector in Rockford you'll get an idea of the city's health and whether a move there will result in you looking for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy attorney. California it's not. While business is doing well in other parts of the country, Rockford is still on the cusp.

A good indicator of a city's economic health is its unemployment rate. In Rockford's case, the news is not good. In May of 2009 the unemployment rate was a whopping 14.5 compared to 9.9 for the state of Illinois. Why is this? Well, up until the 1980s Rockford was almost entirely reliant on the manufacturing industry. Once big factories started to relocate to China and Toronto, print shops and other small firms suffered from the loss of business.

Other cities were affected by the manufacturing decline as well but in the succeeding thirty years have managed to re-invent themselves as high tech havens or tourism hot spots. Rockford has been attempting to do the same by actively promoting themselves to companies looking into setting up operations in the Illinois Technology Corridor rather than to vacuum excavation firms or car companies. The city's proximity to Chicago and the emerging technology corridor has helped, but the lack of workers with post secondary qualifications has not.

Another project the Chamber of Commerce is working on is promoting the city as a tourism destination. The city's extensive park system is a natural draw and could provide a basis for people looking to open a business as a greenhouse supplier or landscaper. The downtown area is under redevelopment as new restaurants, hotels, condominium towers, and a convention center are brought in to give the area a face-lift. This gives an immediate boost to the construction industry and expected future boosts for the hospitality and real estate sectors.

While some of these projects will need significant investment and are dependant upon the price of gold mutual funds in the portfolios of venture capitalists, there are some businesses that are already established and look to be staying. They include several dozen remaining manufacturing operations producing food, chemicals, metal products, and transportation equipment, wholesale and retail stores carrying everything from commercial equipment to cars, and fifty companies in the information sector.