Employment declined in 11 of the 13 largest counties in Illinois from December 2024 to December 2025, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that McLean County (-2.1 percent) had the largest over-the-year decrease in employment. (See chart 1 and table 1.)

  

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Chart 1. Over-the-year percent change in covered employment among the largest counties in Illinois, December 2025

County	Percent change, December 2025
McLean	-2.1
Kane	-1.7
Sangamon	-1.5
Winnebago	-1.4
St. Clair	-1.2
Champaign	-0.8
Lake	-0.6
Madison	-0.5
McHenry	-0.3
DuPage	-0.2
Cook	-0.1
Peoria	0.4
Will	1.1

Cook County (2,607,200) had the highest employment level in Illinois in December 2025. Together, the 13 largest counties accounted for 80.2 percent of total covered employment within the state. Nationwide, the 372 largest counties comprise 73.4 percent of total covered employment in the United States. (Large counties and county equivalents are those with annual average employment levels of 75,000 or more in 2024.)

Average weekly wage gains in 7 of 13 large counties in Illinois were above the national average of 4.2 percent. (See chart 2.) McLean had the largest gain (+6.1 percent). Over-the-year wage gains among the other 12 large Illinois counties ranged from 5.6 percent to 2.8 percent.

  

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Chart 2. Over-the-year percent change in covered average weekly wages among the largest counties in Illinois, fourth quarter 2025

County	Percent change, fourth quarter 2025
McLean	6.1
Peoria	5.6
Winnebago	4.8
Lake	4.6
Madison	4.6
Sangamon	4.4
McHenry	4.3
St. Clair	4.2
Kane	3.6
Champaign	3.3
Will	3.1
Cook	2.8
DuPage	2.8

Weekly wages in 3 of the 13 largest counties in Illinois were above the national average of $1,569: Cook ($1,784), Lake ($1,769), and DuPage ($1,633). Average weekly wages among the other 10 large counties ranged from $1,508 in Peoria to $1,180 in McHenry.

Employment and wage levels (but not over-the-year changes) are also available for the 89 smaller counties in Illinois, defined as having employment below 75,000 in 2024. (See table 2.) Wage levels in 87 of the 89 smaller counties were below the national average. Putnam reported the highest average weekly wage ($1,884) in the state. Pope reported the lowest average weekly wage ($742).

Among all 102 Illinois counties, 12 reported average weekly wages less than $950, 31 had wages from $950 to $1,049, 20 had wages from $1,050 to $1,149, 22 had wages from $1,150 to $1,249, and 17 had average weekly wages of $1,250 or higher. (See map 1 and table 2.)

QCEW data for states have been included in this release in table 3.

Nationwide coverage of the largest counties is published in the County Employment and Wages news release. Additional information about quarterly employment and wages data is available in the news release Technical Note and from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages website.

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The County Employment and Wages release for the first quarter 2026 is scheduled to be released on Friday, August 28, 2026.