DuPage County and the Country’s Hidden Jobs Crises
DuPage County Jobs: Why Employers Can’t Hire While Graduates Can’t Get Hired
DuPage County jobs are at the center of a contradiction. Every week I hear a version of the same contradiction from DuPage County employers and job seekers alike: businesses say they can’t find qualified workers, while recent graduates say they can’t find a job. Both are right—and the reason why should worry every DuPage County resident, regardless of party.
A recent Washington Post investigation (“Why recruiters can’t find workers and new grads can’t find jobs,” July 12, 2026) confirms what local workforce experts have been telling me directly: the loudest narrative—that AI is wiping out entry-level jobs—is masking a bigger, more structural problem. The country is heading toward one of the largest labor shortages in its history, driven not by automation but by demographic shifts and a widening mismatch between the skills graduates have and the jobs employers actually need filled.
I’ve seen this mismatch up close in conversations with WorkNet DuPage’s workforce development team. In DuPage County, healthcare is our number one industry and manufacturing is a close second—yet both face significant, growing shortages of nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and skilled trades workers. Meanwhile, interest among young job seekers remains disproportionately concentrated in IT and “impressive,” six-figure career tracks, even though those specific jobs are comparatively scarce here. Too many of our kids are choosing degrees based on prestige rather than on where the actual openings are.
Part of the fix is information: schools and public institutions need to do a far better job showing students what our local labor market really looks like before they pick a major, not after they graduate with debt and no offers. Part of the fix is employer behavior: too many DuPage businesses still expect job seekers to arrive fully trained, rather than investing in apprenticeships and work-based learning that meet people where they are. Federal programs under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act already incentivize this kind of training partnership—but adoption among local employers remains too low.
As a high schooler at Wheaton Warrenville, I was never given any guidance on what programs existed and led directly to good local jobs. Guidance counselors juggling hundreds of students often default to a one-size-fits-all four-year college pitch, because it’s the path they know best, not necessarily the one that fits every student or our local economy. Rebuilding that connection between DuPage County jobs and DuPage County classrooms shouldn’t be left to chance.
As a candidate for DuPage County Board, I believe closing this gap is squarely a county-level opportunity. That means connecting with our local businesses and with our educational institutions: our nationally-ranked high schools, College of DuPage and other community colleges, local 4-year colleges, trade schools, Northern Illinois University and more. It means supporting WorkNet DuPage’s employer partnerships, pushing for stronger data-sharing between schools and local industry, and championing apprenticeship incentives that make it easier for a DuPage manufacturer or hospital to train the workforce it needs. Our residents deserve real pathways to good jobs already open right here at home—not just the ones that look good on a college brochure.
Isobel Michaud is a candidate for DuPage County Board, District 4.
