Labor Market

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Labor Market

Chicago’s northwest suburban labor market along Interstate 90 to Rockford is among the most robust in the Midwest.

Top 10 High Tech Employment Metro Areas  
The Chicago metro area remains among the top 10 metro regions in the country for the number of high-tech workers employed in tech industries according to a September 2018 report by Cushman & Wakefield.  According to the report, Tech 2.0, the Chicago metro area employs 229,490 workers in various tech employment industries.

Golden Corridor's High Tech Concentration  
Chicago’s Golden Corridor (representing the eastern half of Huntley’s labor market area) employs over 82,000 in high-tech oriented jobs.

Lower Wages than the City of Chicago  
Wages in the core of Huntley’s labor market are significantly less than those in the City of Chicago and in many cases lower than wages in the Midwest’s other major cities. Huntley and McHenry County employers enjoy significantly lower wages than other businesses in the Metro Chicago area. Based on information from the Illinois Department of Employment Security, McHenry County average wages are 3.27% lower than those in Kane, DeKalb and Kendall Counties, 12.45% lower than in DuPage County, 14.07% lower than Cook County and as much as 14.94% lower than in Lake County.

Depending upon the Metro-Chicago area county in which a business may locate, the average annual cost of 25 employees could be as much as $123,700 more than that of a company which locates in McHenry County.

McHenry County Labor Market
The McHenry County Labor Report for 2018 offers a current snapshot of the local workforce and highlights the following key areas:

  • Demographics– current overview of our people resources.
  • Industries– current and 10 year growth, earnings and sales.
  • Occupations– employment and unemployment characteristics, and education
  • Average Annual Wage Comparisons for McHenry County and surrounding areas for select industries.
  • Workforce Program customers participant training, employment and expenditure figures.

The McHenry County Labor Report identifies the County’s economic strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for future growth. The report updates the data produced for the 2017 Labor Report and includes new information on population changes, workforce by industry, and labor underutilization.

According to the Labor Report, the charts below represent customers who successfully finished services in with McHenry County Workforce Network (MCWN) and WIOA (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act): 

Workforce Network Customers -Employment 2018

Average Hourly Wage - workforce network 2018

Workforce Resources and Detailed Reports
McHenry County-2018 Workforce Report
McHenry County Workforce Investment Board
Kane County Workforce Development Division
Workforce Partners of Metropolitan Chicago