DeKalb County, IL jobs, unemployment and layoffs

DeKalb County’s unemployment rate is 3.6%. No layoff notices here in the last 12 months. 34 open professional jobs are in its cities.

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DeKalb County economy

3.6%
unemployment, Sep 2026
4.4% the month before
52,345
in the labor force
Source: BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics
100,512
people in DeKalb County
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
$69,022
median household income
Source: Census ACS
35%
of workers in white-collar occupations
Management, business, financial and professional; Census ACS

DeKalb County outlook: Steady

Built from public Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census figures. It describes the area, not any one employer in it.

Private-sector jobs down 1.8% from 2022 to 2025
Population up 1.5% from 2020 to 2025
Unemployment 3.6%, down 0.8 points from a year ago
Sectors adding the most jobs: health care (+689 jobs), other services (+317 jobs)
Sectors losing the most jobs: admin & staffing (−708 jobs), retail (−528 jobs)

Learn and get funded in DeKalb County

Which AI skills each kind of job asks for, with the pay premium.
Your local workforce board and American Job Centers: training vouchers and re-employment help.
Grants and funding for job seekers, ranked for your state and situation.
Unemployment benefits by state, if you are between jobs.

DeKalb County layoffs

No layoff notices naming DeKalb County in the last 12 months are on file. The WARN Act covers employers with 100 or more workers, so smaller layoffs are not in it.

All layoff notices in the state

Employers hiring most in DeKalb County

Employers with the most open professional roles in this county’s cities. The county is taken from each job’s city, so roles with no city are not counted.

Constellation Energy8 open roles
Advastar5 open roles
Elliott Aviation2 open roles
5 Stones1 open role
Aditi Consulting1 open role
Advastar, Inc. | Recruiting & Staffing1 open role
Amazon1 open role
Covenant Logistics1 open role
Crete United1 open role
Erie Home1 open role

Colleges in DeKalb County

Colleges in DeKalb County
College	City	Type	Students
Northern Illinois University	Dekalb	Public 4-year	10,000–19,999

Workforce development and job centers

The public workforce board and American Job Centers serving DeKalb County. They offer free help with job search, training and filing for benefits.

Laid off in Illinois? How to file for unemployment in Illinois (steps, weekly amount and the appeal deadline).

Kane, Kendal & DeKalb County Workforce Development Board
De Kalb, Kane, Kendall

workNet DeKalb
Dekalb · Affiliate · 630-762-2120
Mondays 12pm-4pm, Thursdays 9am-1pm

Cities in DeKalb County

Other Illinois counties

All of Illinois

Laid off or looking for work in DeKalb County?

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See your options after a layoff

Sources: Census Bureau and BLS (county unemployment is not seasonally adjusted); layoff notices from Illinois’s published record; job counts from our live job board; IPEDS for colleges; CareerOneStop for workforce boards and job centers. Illinois unemployment benefits and severance rules.

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