More DeKalb County workers are retiring and leaving their employers without experienced help.

Roger Hopkins, executive director of the DeKalb County Economic Development Corporation, said companies like IDEAL Industries and local school districts are losing experienced workers to retirement.

“It creates opportunities for young workers, the opportunity to move in for higher-paying careers and technical professional jobs,” Hopkins said.

Sycamore’s IDEAL Industries, 1000 Park Ave., is losing 11 people to retirement, said Lynn Joiner, IDEAL benefits administrator.

Joiner said the electrical manufacturing company is planning to fill the vacancies by promoting people from within the company. If no one within the company is qualified, it will resort to outside recruiting.

DeKalb’s fastest-growing workforces are in the retail, health care services and construction industries, Hopkins said.

DeKalb County is trying to attract new people with diverse housing options including apartments, townhomes, single family homes or detached single family housing, he said.

The federal government is also experiencing a decline in experienced workers.

The Partnership for Public Service, a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to recruiting quality government workers, released a report in early September that outlined the lack of experienced workers.

The federal government has more than 1.8 million civilian employees, more than any other employer in the United States, according to the report. It predicts that by 2007, 53 percent of current federal employees may be eligible to retire.

Joshua Fay-Hurvitz, the organization’s program associate, said potential retirees include the pharmacist who manages the pharmacy at a veterans’ hospital and an experienced civil engineer who works for the Federal Highway Administration.

The federal government hired 1,770 Illinois workers last year for a total of 40,663 federal employees in Illinois, Fay-Hurvitz said. The government employs the workers in the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security.

The organization surveyed 600 likely voters nationally and found that recruiting mid-career professionals, such as senior managers and specialists, will be a challenge, Fay-Hurvitz said. Only 49 percent of mid-career professionals said they were interested in working for the government, he said.

Seventy-eight percent of mid-career professionals believe the federal government needs reform to make it a better place for people to work, Fay-Hurvitz said.