Despite negative talk about what the pandemic has done to the economy, Kankakee County has done well, despite. Tuesday, the Kankakee County Board listened to a status report from the Kankakee County Alliance. The Alliance’s CEO Tim Nugent hi-lited a list of positive developments and said the 2021 Business Profile will be displayed by the end of February…Nugent also addressed the Career Coach Program at KCC. The Economic Alliance assisted in developing the resource tool …

The numbers for 2020 all looked pretty good considering the effect of the pandemic. The county unemployment is at 6 %. Before the pandemic, unemployment was at a historic 4.2%. After climbing to a COVID-effected 15.9 Percent it’s back to six-percent today. Nugent also pointed to job growth in a 3-county area (Kankakee, Iroquois and Will County). Since 2005, Nugent said, the 3-county job growth has been 11.1 %-- which is well above the national average. The average-earnings per job, he adds, is a little over $58,000.

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