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, and freight demand. Note: employment data refers to payroll job estimates for the city of Chicago and is not adjusted for seasonality.

Key trends include:

• The Chicago (city) economy has expanded by an estimated 17,715 jobs year-over-year since May 2016. This growth is driven by absolute gains in Financial Activities (+5,789 jobs), Education and Health Services (+3,816), and Professional and Business Services (+2,454).
• The Chicago (city) unemployment rate decreased by 1.4 points YOY to 4.6% in May 2017.
• Unemployment insurance claims in Cook County decreased by -2.5%, from 15,291 in May 2016 to 14,903 in May 2017.
• The Chicago Business Barometer (Purchasing Managers Index) increased by 20.5% from 49.3 in May 2016 to 59.4 in May 2017.

These and other trends are illustrated in this month’s Chicago by the Numbers.