The county has gained nearly 25,000 new jobs since 1985, according to the Joliet/Will County Center for Economic Development.
“We’ve come a long way since the dark days of the early 1980s when Will County lost 8,000 jobs and Joliet set a national record for unemployment at 26 1/2 percent,” said Thomas Hickey, chairman of the economic development group.
The county now has an estimated 130,000 jobs, up from 105,000 in 1985, according to figures released by the center. The present unemployment rate for Joliet is 11 percent.
Other favorable economic indicators cited by the center include:
– A 6 percent increase in building permits for the year to date, with a 27 percent jump in permits for single-family homes.
– A 5 percent increase in population, to 375,000, since the 1990 census.
– An increase in median household income to $47,000 in 1992, up from $46,000 the year before.