Economic indicators for the third quarter of 2014 were recently released for DuPage County.
The county’s total sales tax receipts were $342 million for the second quarter of 2014, compared to $327 million for the second quarter of 2013 – an increase of 4.4 percent over the year and trending in a positive direction. In addition, the 4.4 percent increase is double the first-quarter increase of 2014 versus 2013 of 1.79 percent.
The unemployment rate in DuPage County dropped from six percent in the second quarter of 2014 to five percent as of August 2014. This is lower than August 2013, when the unemployment rate was reported to be 7.5 percent.
DuPage County continues to have the lowest unemployment rate in the region and is lower than the state’s unemployment rate of 6.7 percent for this same time period. DuPage County also boasts the second lowest unemployment rate in the state of Illinois as well as the lowest unemployment rate for any county in Illinois with a population greater than 10,000.
County office vacancy rates remain high at 17.2 percent for the third quarter of 2014, compared to 16.8 for the second quarter of 2014.
That said, Choose DuPage was pleased to welcome SKF Corporation to Naperville during the third quarter of 2013 and SKF will soon start construction on an 80,000 square-foot building on Warrenville Road in Naperville, which will create 100 new jobs for the county.
Choose DuPage is addressing office vacancy rates through programs such as the Rev3 Innovation Center, which recently opened at the Naperville Campus of Northern Illinois University. Rev3 is an important element of the county’s economic development strategy to promote entrepreneurialism, small business development, manufacturing and technology throughout the area.
The industrial vacancy rate in the county declined over a 15-month stretch, but in the second quarter of 2014, the industrial vacancy rate rose slightly to 6.7 percent. In the third quarter of 2014, the vacancy rate dropped to 6.3 percent.
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