The report, A Profile of Older Workers in Illinois [pdf], highlights the age composition of the state’s work force; job gains and losses for older workers by industry; industries in which older workers are concentrated and their job stability and earnings.

     “States have had economic indicators for industries before, and they have had demographic characteristics of workers before,” said Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon. “What is unique about LED is that it shows how the work force changes each quarter within a state or substate area, in what industries the changes occur and the characteristics of workers involved in the changes. These indicators give new insight into each state’s economy and how fluid employment is in local areas.”

     Some highlights from the Illinois report:

• In 2002, industries in which more than 1-in-5 workers were 55 years old and over were the local or suburban transit and apparel-from-fabrics industries.

• Industries where workers 65 years old and over were most likely to be employed were service industries: business services, health services and eating and drinking places.

• General merchandise was an industry with a low turnover rate for workers 55 years old and over, while business services had a high turnover rate.

• Among industries in 2002 that employed more than 1,000 people age 65 and over, the highest-paying was legal services ($5,845 per month).

• The industry with the highest average monthly earnings in 2002 for workers 65 and over was holding and other investment offices ($11,932). But the number of such workers was only 377.

• On average, among workers age 65 and over, 10,085 jobs were created and 15,729 were lost in 2002.

     The LED consists of individual partnerships between 29 states and the Census Bureau. The Census Bureau will release reports for its partner states on a variety of topics over the upcoming months. The Department of Health and Human Services’ National Institute on Aging, a component of the National Institutes of Health, funded the report.

     In addition, quarterly work force indicators such as job creation and new hires are currently available for the state of Illinois and several other partner states for selected years, age groups and geographic areas, as well as for men and women at <http://lehd.dsd.census.gov>.

     Because the statistics come from a variety of sources, including state administrative records and basic demographic information, they are not directly comparable with statistics from household surveys such as the decennial census long form, the American Community Survey and the Current Population Survey. Industries are organized under the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. The LED program will soon move from the SIC system to the North American Industry Classification System. As in all data-estimation processes, the results are subject to error, such as those arising from data processing or incomplete records. The Census Bureau uses a variety of procedures to minimize such errors.

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