Employer data for cities

[David Dachtera]

Does anyone have any sources of employer data for any community in Illinois or any other state?

City-data has info on businesses it knows about, but doesn't seem to indicate their status as being major employers in an area.

Before investing in an area, I'd like to understand the employment base so as to assess the potential renters in that area and the stability of their source(s) of income.

[James Masotti]

Originally posted by @David Dachtera:

Does anyone have any sources of employer data for any community in Illinois or any other state?

City-data has info on businesses it knows about, but doesn't seem to indicate their status as being major employers in an area.

Before investing in an area, I'd like to understand the employment base so as to assess the potential renters in that area and the stability of their source(s) of income.

 I usually just use chamber of commerce websites and/or wikipedia. Not really official lists. Some state department websites may have some downloadable information on registered companies...but generally speaking I'm here just to follow this thread and see if anyone has better data sources than me :-)