CUED

Labor Market Profiles:
Wisconsin Steel, Pullman, Calumet Expressway Industrial Parks

The report below presents a profile for an area surrounding three of the 15 parks. Wisconsin Steel, located at Torrence and 106th Streets is the site of the former Wisconsin Steel Works. Plans for the site include a major recycling facility as well as industries that utilize recycled materials. Pullman Industrial Park was first developed in 1969 and four light industrial firms presently operate there. It is located on the Calumet Expressway between 111th and 115th Streets. Calumet Industrial Park is still in the conceptual stage of development. It is located directly across the Calumet Expressway from Pullman and consists of 260 acres of undeveloped land.

Certain zip codes have been designated either adjacent to or quite near these parks as a target area. It is this area that is the subject of the labor market profiles included below. A somewhat larger area has been utilized to analyze labor supply since some of the data used is based on Illinois Department of Employment Security service districts which take in very large territories. This larger area is designated as the expanded area. The target area was delineated based on both proximity to the industrial parks and that area with the greatest employment needs. Need in this instance was based on rate of employment and income levels. A map showing the location of both target and the expanded areas is displayed on the following page.

It should be noted that this southeast side target area is unique in the City of Chicago in several respects. First it has historically been a center for steel production and for heavy industry associated with steel. It is an area particularly well suited for this type of development because of its proximity to rail, water and highway transportation; because of a high concentration of labor with heavy industrial experience; and because of the presence of a significant amount of industrial land. At the same time, the drastic decline of the steel industry over the last decade has left a large population of experienced industrial workers without jobs or under-employed in jobs for which they are overly qualified.

Another unique aspect of this target area is its proximity to Enterprise Zone 3. While the borders of the target area are not identical with this zone, the labor market information is still quite relevant. Also, both Wisconsin Steel and Pullman are within the zone. Calumet appears to be on the border.

This report is organized into four parts. Part I presents a summary and the conclusions. Part II shows the geographical labor market of the industrial parks. A computer simulation model is used to estimate where new workers in the parks would be likely to come from in the absence of any policy intervention. Part III presents characteristics of the demand for labor in the target area including its industrial structure and the occupations of persons employed by these industries. Part IV presents characteristics of the supply of labor in the target area. Included in this section are demographic, economic and occupational characteristics of the employed and unemployed residents of the target area.

This website is maintained by Cedric Williams, Manager System Services,
UIC-Center for Urban Economic Development