Freight Employment

Freight-Related Employment

The folllowing tables summarize freight-related employment and employment trends in Metropolitan Chicago.

Regional Distribution of Freight-Related Employment

The following table shows freight-related employment by county for 2007. The data shows that transportation and warehousing employment is disproportionately located in Cook and DuPage Counties.  For other freight-related employment (e.g., manufacturing), several collar counties have disproportionate shares of employment.  Will County is not shown to have a disproportionately large freight-related employment level compared to other counties, though subsequent tables show recent substantial growth in Will County.

Employment (000's) by Sector, with County Share of Sector Employment  

Sector

Cook
County

DuPage
County

Kane
County

Kendall
County

Lake
County

McHenry
County

Will
County

  Total

Manufacturing

231
(56%)

61
(15%)

33
(8%)

3
(1%)

42
(10%)

21
(5%)

21
(5%)

412

Wholesale Trade

116
(49%)

55
(23%)

12
(5%)

1
(1%)

32
(13%)

6
(3%)

15
(6%)

237

Transportation and Warehousing

113
(69%)

26
(16%)

5
(3%)

3
(2%)

4
(3%)

2
(1%)

10
(6%)

164

Total - Three Sectors

460
(57%)

142
(17%)

50
(6%)

7
(1%)

78
(10%)

29
(4%)

47
(6%)

813
Population - For Comparison

5,285
(62%)

929
(11%)

501
(6%)

97
(1%)

710
(8%)

314
(4%)

674
(8%)

8,512

 Source: County Business Patterns.  (http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/)

 

Regional Freight-Related Employment Trends

The following three tables show freight-related employment trends by county for the years 2000 to 2007.  The data show that manufacturing and wholesale employment has trended down in most counties in the Chicago region since 2000, while transportation and warehousing employment has remained nearly steady.  In fact, from 2000 to 2007, transportation and warehousing employment grew in every county but Cook and DuPage.

 

Manufacturing Employment (000s) by County, 2000-2007

County

  2000

  2001

  2002

  2003

  2004

  2005

  2006

  2007

Cook

341

324

270

262

255

246

237

231

DuPage

69

70

66

65

63

62

62

61

Kane

41

40

36

34

34

33

33

33

Kendall

3

3

2

2

2

2

2

3

Lake

53

53

50

49

45

46

47

42

McHenry

28

28

26

20

21

21

22

21

Will

26

26

24

24

22

21

21

21

Total

560

543

475

456

441

432

425

412

 Source: County Business Patterns

 

Wholesale Trade Employment (000s) by County, 2000-2007

County

  2000

  2001

  2002

  2003

  2004

  2005

  2006

  2007

Cook

156

151

136

131

132

129

125

116

DuPage

66

69

63

61

56

54

53

55

Kane

11

11

12

11

11

12

12

12

Kendall

1

1

1

0

0

1

1

1

Lake

23

24

26

31

31

32

32

32

McHenry

7

6

6

13

12

13

12

6

Will

7

8

9

11

11

13

14

15

Total

270

271

253

258

254

254

247

237

 Source: County Business Patterns

 

Transportation and Warehousing Employment (000s) by County, 2000-2007

County

  2000

  2001

  2002

  2003

  2004

  2005

  2006

  2007

Cook

122

123

112

116

109

115

115

113

DuPage

28

27

25

24

24

24

25

26

Kane

3

3

3

4

4

4

4

5

Kendall

1

1

1

1

1

1

2

3

Lake

3

3

4

5

5

5

4

4

McHenry

1

1

1

2

2

2

2

2

Will

5

5

6

7

7

8

8

10

Total

163

163

151

158

153

159

161

164

 Source: County Business Patterns

Transportation and Warehousing employment can be broken into subcomponents for further analysis.  The steady overall picture masks transportation industry restructuring.  Trucking and aviation both saw substantial regional job losses early in the decade, but showed modest growth late in the decade.  Warehousing employment rose substantially.

Truck Transportation Employment (000s) by County, 2000-2007

County

  2000

  2001

  2002

  2003

  2004

  2005

  2006

  2007

Cook

38

37

33

33

25

25

26

26

DuPage

8

8

6

7

6

7

7

7

Kane

2

1

2

2

2

2

2

2

Kendall

1

1

-

-

-

-

-

1

Lake

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

McHenry

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Will

2

3

3

3

3

3

3

4

Total

53

51

46

46

39

39

40

41

 Source: County Business Patterns 

 

Air Transportation Employment (000s) by County, 2000-2007

County

  2000

  2001

  2002

  2003

  2004

  2005

  2006

  2007

Cook

42

46

42

40

37

36

35

32

DuPage

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

-

Source: County Business Patterns.  Information is incomplete for counties not shown.

 

Warehousing and Storage Employment (000s) by County, 2000-2007

County

  2000

  2001

  2002

  2003

  2004

  2005

  2006

  2007

Cook

3

3

3

8

9

8

9

8

DuPage

1

1

1

4

4

4

4

4

Kane

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Will

-

-

1

2

2

2

2

3

Source: County Business Patterns.  Information is incomplete for counties not shown.