Chicago's economy thrives on a combination of mature (manufacturing and transportation/distribution) and emerging (info-tech, R&D, and green energy) industries. Chicago attracts a wide range of businesses in a variety of industries from around the world. Considering the largest employers are made up of Wal-Mart, Advocate Health Care, Walgreens, AT&T, United Airlines, Abbott Laboratories, J.P. Morgan Chase financial services, Motorola Inc., Jewel-Osco, and Resurrection Health Care, it should come as no surprise that Chicago ranks in the Top 5 among 374 metro areas in a number of key industries including: Business & Financial Services, Manufacturing, Information Technology, Health Services, and Transportation & Distribution.
Biotech
Chicago and its greater metropolitan area provide life science and biotech entrepreneurs with a tremendous balance of capital, community and global fluency. Area companies are at the forefront of developments in diagnostics, therapeutics, medical equipment, and food and environmental biotechnologies, as well as enabling technologies such as bioinformatics, genomics and proteomics.
Health
- 317,000+ employed in healthcare & life science occupations
- 5,000+ medical/dental residents – 2nd only to NYC
- 47 teaching hospitals
- 6 medical schools
Transportation & Warehousing
Chicago has dominated the North American transportation and distribution scene since the 1850s. In the past 20 years, it has become the major crossroads of America's global trade. Consequently, Chicago offers the most competitive and cost-effective transportation center in the Americas.
- Central location with air, rail, and water distribution capacity
- Only gateway where all six Class-One North American railroads can interchange traffic
- Intermodal container handler
- Convergence of six major highways
- Chicago’s airport system ships and receives 1.2 million tons of freight, mail, and goods annually
- Non-stop global gateway to 60 international and 142 domestic business centers
- Two ports capable of handling ocean-going ships and barges
- Linked to the Atlantic via St. Lawrence Seaway and to the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River
Infotech
Consistent with its history of being a center for applied technologies, Chicago’s technology expertise is based on a concentration of information intensive industries.
- Communications equipment manufacturing
- Internet publishing & broadcasting
- Wired telecommunications carriers
- Data processing, hosting & related services
- Securities & commodity contracts brokerage and exchanges
- Technical consulting services
- Scientific R&D services
Business & Financial Services
Chicago offers one of the largest, most diverse pools of business and financial service expertise with over 1 million employees and nearly $200 billion in GRP. Specializations include:
- Accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping & payroll services
- Advertising
- Recruiting
- Legal services
- Management services
- Security services
- R&D
- Specialized design
Manufacturing
Chicago has consistently been a leader in manufacturing, currently making up more than 10% of the economy and employing over 470,000 workers. The Chicago region's manufacturing base continues to change with the economy, recently adding jobs in wind energy, green building materials, and hi-tech products.
