growing local population, businesses increasingly located or expanded in the County to
capitalize on that growth. The Lake County Regional Framework Plan states that during
the 1990s, private sector employment in the county increased by over 49 percent, while
population increased by 25 percent over the same period.
This employment section will analyze information concerning job location, employment
characteristics, and workforce demographics for the overall county plus the cities of
Waukegan and North Chicago, where, over 18 percent and 23 percent, respectively, of
the residents live in poverty.
Recent Employment Trends
Even during the turbulent economic years since the early 2000s, Lake County achieved
positive private sector employment growth. According to the Illinois Department of
Employment Security, private sector employment in the county grew 0.7 percent
between the years 2001 and 2011, while in the six-county region, private sector
employment decreased 2.9 percent over the same period. As can be seen in Exhibit III50, employment opportunities continue to grow in the county. Between the years 2012
and 2013, total employment numbers went up by 2,270, or 1 percent. Although positive,
this growth was less than the six-county region rate of 2 percent.
According to the Illinois Department of Employment Security report “Where Workers
Work 2014,” the Lake County industries in which jobs grew the most between 2000 and
2011 were manufacturing (+3.4 percent), management of companies and enterprises
(+15.1 percent), accommodations and food services (+4.4 percent), and retail trade
(+1.5 percent). The industries with declines in employment included transportation and
warehousing (13.8 percent). As of August 2013, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
reported the unadjusted unemployment rate in Lake County at 7.9 percent, compared to
8.7 percent in August 2012 and 9.3 percent in 2011. Therefore, while unemployment
has decreased, the demand for jobs still outstrips the supply.
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APPLIED REAL ESTATE ANALYSIS, INC.
LAKE COUNTY, ILLINOIS