Upbeat signs in Will County

• Reprints

Updated: February 21, 2012 8:43AM

We’ve gotten so tired of bad news about the local and national economies that we sometimes want to shake our journalistic fist at the sky.

We’ve been revealing how bad the economy is in the Southland for more than three years now, and we’re fed up with it. How about some good news for a change?

New numbers suggest things are looking up in Will County, and if the dark clouds have not parted entirely, at least some rays of sunshine are breaking through.

Of course, the economy is not some inanimate object. It’s the complex financial measure of people and how much freedom and prosperity they have, or will have, to make beneficial decisions for themselves.

But a couple of portents in Will County make us hopeful, if not downright optimistic.

First, FedEx will open a package distribution center in Romeoville this year and bring 400 new jobs with it. FedEx will spend $37 million to build a 250,000-square-foot warehouse in the Pinnacle Business Park.

This marks the latest turnaround for Romeoville, which created 1,100 jobs during 2011. Samsung brought about 300 jobs when it moved into a building in Pinnacle. And G&W Electric invested $20 million in a new global headquarters in the village, starting by moving into a 371,000-square-foot space in December.

The second good sign, one that might mean more than all the others, is that foreclosure filings in Will County fell 33 percent in 2011 — after skyrocketing to 11,027 in 2010.

The elevator started up in 2006 with 3,154 filings before hitting the roof in 2010. Foreclosure improvements also were reported last year for surrounding counties and all of Illinois.

So, a couple of more signs that our long trek out of the worst economy since the Great Depression may be coming to an end.

There’s still a ways to go, and how long no one can say for sure.

But we’re glad to report some encouraging news.