Nearly 5 Million Workers Position Chicagoland a Destination for Growth

Chicagoland’s economy is in a moment of profound transformation — and our greatest advantage in navigating it is our workforce. As outlined in Chicago 2050 | A Plan for Economic Growth & Jobs, future readiness depends on a dynamic labor force that is adaptable, resilient, and prepared for the industries shaping tomorrow’s economy.

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Today, with 4.79 million people employed across the region, Chicagoland stands as the Midwest’s unrivaled talent engine. Our workforce is deeper, more diverse, and more adaptable than nearly any major region in the country — and these strengths are fueling a recovery that not only regained ground lost during the pandemic but is now positioning the region for long-term growth.

But the story is bigger than a rebound. It’s about how we prepare for what comes next.

Chicago 2050 identifies future-facing industries — quantum, AI, climate and clean tech, advanced logistics, life sciences — where demand is accelerating and where Chicagoland has the assets to lead. At the same time, automation and demographic pressures are reshaping traditional sectors, challenging us to ensure that workers can transition into higher-value roles without being left behind.

In this week’s Business Pulse, the World Business Chicago Research Center looks at where our workforce stands today, how far we’ve come since 2020, and what the data tells us about the jobs and skills that will define the next decade. It’s a snapshot of our progress — and a reminder of why preparing Chicago’s workforce for the future is central to sustaining our economic momentum.

With over 4.79 million people employed in the region as of November 2025, Chicagoland is the Midwest’s talent engine. The metro area’s workforce fuels Illinois’ economic competitiveness with unmatched depth, diversity, and adaptability, giving employers a resilient edge in today’s selective hiring landscape.

Where is the workforce now, and how has it rebounded from the pandemic?

Since 2020, Chicagoland’s total employment has grown by6 percent—following a sharp pandemic-induced contraction to an average low of 4.27M employed in 2020 and rebounding to 4.76M people employed as of November 2025. This recovery, with accelerated gains post-2021, reflects resilient sectors like health care and logistics buffering routine job losses elsewhere.

The national labor market has cooled from its post-pandemic highs, with slower hiring, more cautious employers, and ongoing shortages across healthcare, tech, logistics, and the skilled trades. Yet even against this backdrop, Chicagoland’s economy has posted notable gains when compared to conditions five years ago.

Between 2020 and 2025, the region experienced a strong rebound in hospitality and leisure, steady demographic- and policy-driven growth in health care and government, and continued structural expansion in logistics fueled by e-commerce. These trends were tempered by automation and digitalization pressures affecting white-collar support functions and information-heavy sectors — underscoring both the opportunities and challenges shaping the region’s evolving labor market.

We see this through significant job gains in accommodation and food services, health care and social assistance, transportation and warehousing, and government. We also see modest growth in arts, manufacturing, construction, and professional/technical services, while information, finance, and administrative services post small losses.

Looking ahead, the region must double down on strengthening talent pipelines and expanding quality jobs in health care, logistics, government, and advanced services — the sectors driving near- and long-term growth. At the same time, we must proactively manage transitions in shrinking or slowly growing industries through reskilling, upskilling, and productivity-focused innovation, ensuring workers can move into higher-value roles rather than be left behind.

This aligns squarely with Chicago 2050, which calls for preparing the region’s workforce for economic shifts already underway and building the future-ready talent base that will power Chicago’s next decade of growth.

What jobs have grown or declined over the past five years?

Chicagoland’s labor market has undergone a clear reshuffling over the past five years, with growth concentrated in care, service, and management occupations, while routine office and production roles continue to erode.

Occupations with the most gains:

• Management occupations posted steady growth as companies reorganized for hybrid work, digital operations, and supply-chain complexity–expanding leadership capacity after years of volatility (+87,729 jobs). This reflects firms prioritizing leadership for operational pivots amid ongoing disruption.
• Food service and hospitality jobs have also mounted a strong comeback as consumer spending returned and the region’s visitor economy regained its footing (+76,63 workers from 2020-2025).
• Health care support and community services saw demand surge during the pandemic and remain elevated as hospitals, clinics, and social-service providers face demographic pressures and persistent staffing needs with (+59,630 workers). Lockdowns spiked frontline requirements in these areas, with effects enduring post-recovery.
• Personal-care roles—from childcare to wellness and recreation—have bounced back as households resumed pre-pandemic routines, (+21,662 workers).

Occupations with the most losses:

• Administrative support and other information-heavy office roles, where automation and AI are streamlining back-office functions, (-52,384 workers, 2020-2025).
• Manufacturing-adjacent roles, clerical and routine information roles show notable contraction (-28,395 workers), continuing a long-running shift toward more automated and specialized plants that require fewer workers.

The result is a labor market that is both reshaped and more polarized: faster hiring in hands-on, customer-facing and leadership roles, and steady attrition in routine tasks increasingly handled by technology.

Our diversity continues to be a defining strength

Additionally, home to a deep and diversified labor market, Chicagoland has the scale and mix employers need, from frontline services and logistics to highly specialized professional and technical roles. This depth extends to diversity in both occupations and people: the region draws talent from across the Midwest and around the world, creating a multilingual, multicultural workforce that global firms can seamlessly plug into for innovation and growth. Such breadth ensures resilience, as employers access everything from skilled trades to executive leadership without geographic constraints.

Our educational institutions train students for the jobs of tomorrow

This diversified talent pool doesn’t just exist—it’s constantly replenished by Chicagoland’s robust education and training ecosystem, ensuring a steady flow of skilled workers ready for tomorrow’s demands. With over 151,000 program completions annually—a balanced split between traditional degrees and credentials that prepare people for specific roles and up nearly 6,000 from 2023–the region’s higher-education and training system produces one of the nation’s most robust flows of new talent each year.

A diverse set of over 170 institutions in the metro area provides employers with direct value:

• Flagship universities are feeding engineering, life sciences, tech, and analytical roles.
• Comprehensive universities producing business, education, health, and public-service talent.
• Community colleges and technical or vocational institutions aligned with manufacturing, health care support, logistics, and IT.

Firms can recruit entry-level professionals locally, tap certificate and apprenticeship programs for middle-skill roles, and partner with institutions for specialized training. The result is not just a large workforce, but one constantly refreshed with new skills and credentials, keeping Chicagoland ahead in a competitive talent landscape.

Looking Forward

Building on this refreshed talent pipeline, Chicagoland is already shifting toward high-value sectors that will shape the future. Projections from 2020 to 2030 show the workforce aligning with key drivers: health care and social assistance as the top employer with consistent gains, government and education forming a stable base of public-sector and teaching positions, and professional/business services, finance, and tech driving high-skill demand. Manufacturing and logistics are holding steady as pillars but grow more automation-focused to sustain output amid fewer low-skill jobs. AI, automation, and e-commerce will erode routine roles in manufacturing, retail, and administration—yet Chicagoland’s rebalancing toward resilient, higher-wage areas positions it to capture expansion rather than cling to shrinking ones.

Over the next five years, the region’s job gains are heavily concentrated in health-related and service roles, led by healthcare support at 14,988 projected jobs gained from 2025-2030. The metro area’s economy is continuing its shift from routine work toward care, service, and knowledge roles. Evidently, the strongest growth sits in occupations that are hard to automate and closely tied to demographic and social trends – aging population, experience-driven consumption, and e-commerce and supply chains.

The losses in office support, sales, and production signal a structural shift:  software, AI, and advanced manufacturing are shrinking demand for routine clerical and factory work. Long-run competitiveness will depend on how effectively the region reskills and redeploys displaced workers into these more resilient, higher-value occupations.

Far from a setback, the region adapts smartly: low-skill manufacturing and admin roles decline, but output and productivity are projected to rise via automation. Jobs are projected to grow in health care, government, professional services, education, and logistics – favoring high-value resilience.

Chicagoland: the Midwest’s sustaining, adapting talent engine

Chicagoland is more than another Midwestern labor market – it’s where the region’s workforce ranking delivers a daily competitive edge for employers through unmatched depth and adaptability. Bolstered by a diversified economy, powerful education pipeline, and strategic shifts to high-value sectors, the region’s talent story proves durable for decades ahead. World Business Chicago will keep pinpointing tomorrow’s skills, while investors and executives should double down on Chicagoland for hiring, innovation, and growth; local leaders must sustain this edge with investments in training, inclusion, and sector partnerships.

As always, thank you to theWBC Research Center for this week’s analysis and for helping us see clearly what the data tells us about Chicagoland’s strengths and the work ahead. A future-ready workforce is at the core of Chicago 2050, and we will continue using this platform to track the region’s progress and highlight the trends shaping our economic outlook.