News Item

01.16.2015

Chicago By the Numbers

World Business Chicago tracks indicators from month to month to gauge the strength of several aspects of Chicago’s economy, including employment in major sectors, residential and office real estate data, price and purchasing indexes, freight demand, and auto and truck sales. Note: employment data refers to payroll job estimates for the city of Chicago and is not adjusted for seasonality.

Key trends evident this month include:

  • The Chicago (city) economy has expanded by an estimated 8,233 private-sector jobs since November 2013, mostly attributed to professional and business services (+4,289) and education and health services (+3,263). The construction sector posted the fastest YOY growth rate, 5.5%, or a growth of nearly 1,500 jobs.
  • New hires in the Midwest increased to 1.23 million (seasonally adjusted); the highest volume since 2001.
  • Venture capital investment is up 74% over last year, led by Avant Credit’s $225M deal, one of the largest venture rounds ever for a Chicago startup.
  • New residential building permits in the city increased to 4,990 units year-to-date in November, a nearly 80% improvement compared to the same time period in 2013.
  • Two consumer sentiment indexes reported 10+ percentage point gains over last year.
  • Air cargo volume for O’Hare and Midway Airports posted a 11.6% YOY change.
  • Hotel occupancy and ADR reported respective increases of 3.6 percentage points and 15.5% over November 2013. Choose Chicago reports that close to 3,000 new rooms are expected to open in the next few years, including Nobu Hotel (155 rooms, early 2016) and Marriott Marquis McCormick Place (1,200 rooms, Summer 2017).

These and other trends are illustrated in this month’s Chicago By The Numbers.

Related News

NEWS

News Item

10.13.2022

Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot & World Business Chicago Announce the Inaugural Chicago Venture Summit Future-of-Food

More than 600 founders, Fortune 500 leaders, and investors are attending Chicago’s flagship food innovation conference hosted by World Business Chicago. CHICAGO, May 26, 2022 – Chicago Mayor Lori

View article

News Item

04.11.2022

World Business Chicago at SeedCon 2022

The Rattan L. Khosa SeedCon is Chicago Booth’s flagship entrepreneurship and venture capital conference. As the world seemed to stand still amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, investors, entrepreneurs, an

View article

News Item

04.11.2022

World Business Chicago Partners with Global Fintech Leader tastytrade for ThinkChicago Fintech Summit

“Innovation is the many years of study and analysis, which then finds itself in the path of an emerging opportunity” -Linwood Ma, tastytrade CTO World Business Chicago was proud to…

View article

News Item

03.30.2022

CBO Collective Announces $1 Million Grant from Google.org to Provide Job Placement and Support to Jobseekers from Under-Resourced Chicago Communities

CHICAGO — The Community Based Organization Collective today announced a $1 million grant from Google.org to help place hundreds of jobseekers on Chicago’s South and West sides into in-demand caree

View article
Translate »