A “State of the Workforce” presentation final week painted a optimistic image of Lake County’s workforce final yr, however whereas the Lake County Workforce Improvement Board evaluation painted a equally rosy image for 2025, it warned of potential points looming within the distance.
In the course of the digital presentation, Ronald Lanz, enterprise growth director at Lake County Companions, stated 2024 was a powerful yr for Lake County and the broader area; Unemployment remained steady, sitting at about 4.5% in December — barely down from the identical time in 2023 and decrease than most of the surrounding communities. Meaning of Lake County’s 454,000 residents within the workforce, about 15,000 are presently unemployed.
Within the know-how and life sciences sectors, two of the county’s strongest industries, employment numbers remained largely unchanged from 2023. Nonetheless, Lanz expects quite a lot of tasks “in our pipeline” will change that in 2025.
The transportation, distribution and logistics trade noticed a 4.3% leap from 2023, whereas manufacturing noticed a smaller, 1% improve. Lake County has additionally been a “very robust” warehousing location, Lanz stated, with expansions into the western and central elements of the county.
“Quite a few our wins” in recent times have truly been in meals manufacturing, he stated. Lake County has the expertise base and coaching packages, and it has attracted companies, making the county a “stronger and stronger vacation spot” for meals manufacturing firms.
In accordance with Jeff Hubert, enterprise providers mission lead with Lake County Workforce Improvement, the county noticed a 5.8% wage progress, outpacing nationwide tendencies. It was a sign of financial power, he stated, whereas additionally underscoring, “the necessity to align wages with rising livings prices.”
Since 2020, Lake County has seen $1.3 billion in new capital investments, Lanz stated, aiding within the retention of practically 5,000 jobs, and the creation of over 4,600 new ones. In 2024 alone, roughly 1,200 jobs have been created or retained, he stated.
Challenges forward
Regardless of the optimistic outlook, there are critical challenges to contemplate.
Quite a few audio system pointed to labor shortages. The county’s labor pressure shrank final quarter by 8,000 in a year-over-year comparability, partly as a result of employees are getting older out of the workforce and retiring.
“Lake County does face a fairly important problem in that our employment inhabitants is getting older,” Lanz stated. “It’s shrinking.”
Will probably be necessary to proceed to get employees to maneuver into Lake County, he stated, to workers the completely different companies the county is trying to entice. These workers will want housing, a problem that native municipalities “are recognizing … and stepping ahead to start to deal with.”
Lanz stated they count on, and are even starting to see, a “lot of progress” in a variety of housing varieties throughout the county.
“It must be unfold out, in order that after we’re touchdown new companies, they know that there’s a chance for his or her workers to having housing alternatives inside shut proximity to the place they’re working,” he stated.
Hubert talked in regards to the significance of working with numerous native organizations to construct a expertise pipeline, making certain a “regular circulate” of employees for employers.
As know-how advances, Hubert stated the county may also want to deal with the rising “talent hole.” Because the healthcare, IT, manufacturing and renewable power industries develop in Lake County, they’ve struggled to search out certified candidates, Hubert stated.
“Our companies are nonetheless rising,” he stated. “Let’s simply prepare up that workforce so we will fill a few of these roles.”
Labor perspective
Michael Lazzaretto, enterprise supervisor at Lake County Laborers Union Native 152, agreed that 2024 was “fairly robust” for the county, particularly in comparison with a number of the union’s metropolis branches, which have seen a downturn with emptiness charges nonetheless up.
“They’re not constructing skyscrapers proper now,” he stated. “There’s lots of workplaces which can be empty. They’ve seen a slowdown, however we have now seen an uptick.”
The uptick they’ve seen got here from federal funds, Lazzaretto stated, with the infrastructure invoice resulting in loads of revitalization work on roads and bridges. Whereas 2025 looks as if it is going to comply with the pattern, Lazzaretto stated nationwide points have been inflicting some uncertainty, together with talks about pausing and even canceling tasks.
“It’s a form of wait-and-see method proper now,” Lazzaretto stated.
Pete Olson is the president of the Lake County Constructing and Development Trades Council, which represents some 50,000 employees in a wide range of trades throughout Lake County. He stated there’s “ample work” within the county, though nowhere close to the degrees seen pre-Nice Recession.
Lazzaretto stated the trades have additionally been affected by the demographic shifts of an getting older workforce, and so they don’t see as many younger individuals coming in as they, would love though Olson famous his native union receives greater than a thousand purposes a yr, indicating excessive curiosity in becoming a member of commerce union organizations.
Lake County unions have been working to extend recruitment, working profession gala’s and “attempting to get that message on the market,” he stated. Native unions are useful for each employees and the neighborhood, Lazzaretto and Olson each stated. They provide excessive pay and advantages, whereas guaranteeing the cash spent on tasks stay inside a neighborhood.
“You need that cash to trickle all the way down to everybody else in the neighborhood,” Lazzaretto stated. “When a man is working in his neighborhood, he’s going to spend his {dollars} in the neighborhood.”
Unions can even draw on bigger, expert swimming pools of labor if want be, Olson stated, together with from neighboring unions.
