Numbers show big pandemic rebound in Joliet, Will County economy

Joliet and Will County have recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic recession, and then some.

That was the message last week from the next head of the Will County Center of Economic Development.

Doug Pryor, vice president of economic development at the CED and who is about to become president and CEO next month, gave an upbeat economic outlook in a presentation to the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry on Wednesday.

Will County continues to lead the state in job growth. Joliet has seen record growth in retail sales. And occupancy levels for industrial and commercial real estate are at or near record highs, Pryor said.

Even labor shortage problems seem to be contradicted by the numbers, Pryor told the Chamber gathering.

About 273,000 people in Will County were working before the pandemic and about 273,000 are working now, he said. The number of residents working had dropped to 264,000 in 2020.

“Our residents are back to to work, in general,” Pryor said. “Will County has bounced back on the employment side – more generally than the state, more generally than the country at large.”

Based on numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of workers in Joliet dropped from 71,300 in 2019 to 57,000 in April 2020. But in December, the number of people working was back up to 70,600.

Labor shortage issues, however, will be a problem, Pryor said, because of an aging workforce, in which Baby Boomers are retiring in an expanding economy.

“The big difference is, nationally and locally the economy is trying to grow,” he said.

The numbers have been surprising at times, Pryor said. Despite the pandemic and the perceived shift to online shopping, retail sales have grown in Joliet, even from pre-pandemic levels.

Retails sales in 2021 in Joliet were up 33% from the previous year, which Pryor noted could be expected because of a comeback from pandemic restrictions in 2020. But they also were 27% higher than the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

“These are new records,” he said. “Retail is doing very, very well in Joliet. We’re outpacing the state.”

Home construction is nowhere near the level it was before the 2008 recession, but Will County has led the state in the number of single-family homebuilding permits for three consecutive years, Pryor said.

Joliet home sales have been “relatively flat for a long time,” largely due to a low inventory of homes for sale, he said. Because of high demand and low supply, the average price for a house in Joliet has increased from $140,000 in 2015 to $231,000 in 2021. The average number of homes on the market during that period has gone from 674 to 199.

One of the messages in Pryor’s presentation is that Will County has become the leading location for economic growth in Illinois.

He suggested that negative perceptions of the Illinois economy are overdone, especially for the Chicago metropolitan region.

“Illinois gets kicked around a lot,” he said. “Illinois is the fifth-largest economy in the United States and the 18th largest in the world.”

Data in Pryor’s presentation included:

• The Joliet unemployment rate, while hitting 18.1% in April 2020, was at 5.6% in December, while job postings are at a record high.

• A record 28 million square feet of industrial space was leased in Will County in 2021, while occupancy rates are at about 95% and at record highs in both the county and Joliet.

• Office occupancy rates are near record levels at 94% in Will County and 92% in Joliet.

• The occupancy rate for retail space in Joliet has topped 98%.