Income & Economics

Household Income & Poverty

In 2022, the two largest household income and benefits groups in Northwest Illinois counties were $50,000 to $74,999 and $100,000 to $149,999. Five BHRC counties have a median housing income (MHI) below the both national ($75,149) and state ($78,433) medians; Ogle County exceeds the national MHI at $75,782. When compared with the counties of neighboring EDDs in Iowa (East Central Intergovernmental Association) and Wisconsin (Southwestern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission), Ogle and Jo Daviess counties fair the best, ranking fifth and ninth, respectively. Stephenson County ranks last (sixteenth). In addition to having the highest MHI of the six BHRC counties, Ogle and Jo Daviess counties have the lowest poverty rates.* Although last in MHI for all regions, Stephenson County's percentage of people living in poverty is lower than the rates of Grant and Richland counties in Wisconsin. 

*Seasonal workers - such as those in agriculture or that enable Jo Daviess County's tourism-reliant economy - may not be fully represented in official statistics related to income, poverty, etc.

Workforce

Prior to 2020, unemployment rates had returned to pre-Great Recession levels. Like most of the country, Northwest Illinois' unemployment rates skyrocketed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic before falling precipitously the next year. Below are the 10-year unemployment rates by month for the region, Illinois, and the United States, not seasonally adjusted.

Note: The term unemployment is nuanced. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates unemployment rates based on the civilian labor force. As shown in the 2022 Workforce Participation table, there are significant percentages of the population not included in the civilian labor force, including workers that have not sought a job, retirees, agricultural workers, active-duty military personnel, institutionalized individuals, federal government employees, and workers with certain disabilities.

Industry

The following charts break down employment and wages within the twelve North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) supersectors. Share of Employment shows which supersectors employ the largest percentage of employees in each county, Illinois, and the United States. Annual wage shows the average annual wage per employee for each supersector. The region mostly aligns with the state in employee distribution except in two supersectors: 

• Manufacturing, where the region has a larger share 

• Professional and business services, where the region has a smaller share 

Education and health services make up the largest share of employees in the region overall, although Trade, transportation, and utilities as well as Manufacturing dominate the private sector.

For apprentices that have home addresses in the BHRC region, Construction is the dominant industry, followed distantly by Manufacturing and wholesale trade. Apprentice union status has decreased slightly from an 83.7% high in 2017 to 81.2% in 2023. Female participation has increased steadily since 2014; there was also a large jump in female participation from 2.97% in 2020 to 8.93% in 2021. This increase was mostly in Whiteside County; the county also saw a significant increase in apprentices in the Educational services industry in the same year.

Tourism

Tourism has three distinct effects on the local economy: 

• Direct impacts (tourism businesses)

• Indirect impacts (non-tourism businesses that supply tourism businesses)

• Induced impacts (income spent in the community by those employed by the tourism industry)

The 2022 Tourism Impacts dashboard shows the total of direct, indirect, and induced effects.

Tourism can be a significant economic driver in rural communities. While the COVID-19 pandemic took a bite out of the local tourism industry in 2020, visitor spending (a direct impact) bounced back and has continued to increase from 2019 levels in all six counties.