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 7,234 jobs year-over-year, a slight improvement of 0.6% since January 2016. This growth is driven by absolute gains in Financial Activities (+4,072 jobs), Retail Trade (+2,441), and Construction (+2,187).
• Strong employer confidence is forecasted for Q2 2017, with 20% of employers in the Chicago Metro planning to add staff between April and June. This is an improvement over the hiring outlook of 13% in Q2 2016.
• Air cargo tonnage at O’Hare and Midway airports increased by 10.4% YOY in February 2017

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