For Immediate Release
Contact:  Jason Gerwig
630/407-6022
August 8, 2007

DUPAGE COUNTY RANKED #5 in US for BUSINESS ATTRACTION

Jobs Increase and Office Vacancy Rate Falls in County

DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom announced today that Expansion Management Magazine has ranked DuPage County #5 among the top 20 counties for business recruitment and attraction.  The publication uses data from the National Policy Research Council to rank counties as attractive for business relocation and start-ups by analyzing the relocation rate and new branch rate.   To achieve a high overall rate, a county must have a high percentage of facilities that physically relocated to the area.

DuPage County was the highest ranking county not located in the Sunbelt .

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) also released that DuPageCountyhad over 719,575 jobs in 2005 based on the most current available data.   This is an increase of 134,000 jobs over 2004.                 

Additionally, the suburban office vacancy rate has fallen to 15.2% during the second quarter of 2007.  This amount of vacant space is the lowest since 2001.  Though the rate is still not back to the pre 9/11 rates of 9%, the drop shows strong growth.

Chairman Schillerstrom stated that these major economic indicators have proven that the businesses in the county are surviving the economic downturns that are seen in many other areas of the country.

“The citation by Expansion Management Magazine and these economic indicators demonstrate DuPage County ’s attractiveness as a business address continues,” Chairman Schillerstrom said when announcing the numbers.

“Our economic development efforts have focused on diversifying the industries in our County and in retaining and attracting high quality jobs.  Our efforts, and those of our economic development partners, including DuPageBiz and Labor, have kept us on the forefront of job creation,” Economic Development Chair, Michael Connelly stated. “We are proud of our partnerships and we are proud of what we can accomplish by working together.”

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