CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Heard Chicago area unemployment has dropped to 4.6% on the news today. I feel like Chicago always lags the rest of the economy due to it's diversey and relatively old school economy, but when it gets going it revs up just as hot as anywhere. This long cycle in particular seems to be having very welcome consequences for our lead sled economy to get up to speed.

Actually it's at 4.2% for the entire metro area for April. I don't know where they're getting 4.6% from. The city is at 4.7% for April (it was at 4.5% for March. Slight uptick which means that, at least my guess, there will be an increase of employment/decrease of unemployment for May numbers). The rate has dropped very rapidly since January. For the metro area, it was at 6% in January so it has gone down 1.8% in just a few months which is massive.

The thing is though that the labor force population for the MSA has decreased by 63,000 people since January. However, employment is up just over 27,000 people (aka unemployment is down over 90K people). Certain media that I have contact with doesn't want to run the story yet because they think it's just unemployed people leaving. However, that is statistically naive, in a way, considering if 3/4 of those people were previously unemployed who left the labor market and there was no net employment increase, we'd have an unemployment rate around 5.7%, not the 4.2% it's at now. Something else is going on too - which is job growth.

They don't seem to understand that it's both some unemployed people leaving but also new jobs coming up. The amount of employment added since January percentage wise isn't as good as LA or NYC, but because of people who may have been unemployed leaving along with job growth - it's resulted in massive decrease of unemployment and unemployment percentage in such a short time.

I do agree with them that maybe it's a big premature to get excited, but if the area starts adding labor force population again and the unemployment rate holds steady-ish or decreases then it's definitely worthy of a story.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Actually it's at 4.2% for the entire metro area for April. I don't know where they're getting 4.6% from. The city is at 4.7% for April (it was at 4.5% for March. Slight uptick which means that, at least my guess, there will be an increase of employment/decrease of unemployment for May numbers). The rate has dropped very rapidly since January. For the metro area, it was at 6% in January so it has gone down 1.8% in just a few months which is massive.

The thing is though that the labor force population for the MSA has decreased by 63,000 people since January. However, employment is up just over 27,000 people (aka unemployment is down over 90K people). Certain media that I have contact with doesn't want to run the story yet because they think it's just unemployed people leaving. However, that is statistically naive, in a way, considering if 3/4 of those people were previously unemployed who left the labor market and there was no net employment increase, we'd have an unemployment rate around 5.7%, not the 4.2% it's at now. Something else is going on too - which is job growth.

They don't seem to understand that it's both some unemployed people leaving but also new jobs coming up. The amount of employment added since January percentage wise isn't as good as LA or NYC, but because of people who may have been unemployed leaving along with job growth - it's resulted in massive decrease of unemployment and unemployment percentage in such a short time.

I do agree with them that maybe it's a big premature to get excited, but if the area starts adding labor force population again and the unemployment rate holds steady-ish or decreases then it's definitely worthy of a story.

4.1% in May for the Illinois portion of the metro. Also a nice additional 38K job increase from April.

https://www.bls.gov/regions/midwest/il_chicago_md.htm

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

4.1% in May for the Illinois portion of the metro. Also a nice additional 38K job increase from April.

https://www.bls.gov/regions/midwest/il_chicago_md.htm

Great news! I'm assuming unemployment is higher in NWI?

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

4.1% in May for the Illinois portion of the metro. Also a nice additional 38K job increase from April.

https://www.bls.gov/regions/midwest/il_chicago_md.htm

Just a small correction. This is the Illinois portion of the MSA not including Elgin and Lake County. Anyway, it's positive to see it come down even more while adding people to the labor force too. Will be interested to see how the city of Chicago is when that data is released in 2 weeks. The unemployment rate is relatively low..and it went up 0.2% from match to April, but it'll be interesting to see if it follows the increase of labor force that the data you linked to shows

[Vlajos]

Recruiting-software startup Yello scored a big follow-up investment, raising $31 million in a deal led by JMI Equity.

Chicago-based Yello makes software that companies such as Comcast and PepsiCo use to track job candidates. The new capital follows a $4.2 million investment last year from existing backers Argentum Group and Chicago-based First Analysis.
- See more at: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic....6hGdfieZ.dpuf

[IrishIllini]

iPhone maker dangles $10B investment in U.S.—and Illinois is in the running -

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic....z59FvddD.dpuf

Lets hope this happens...I wonder where in Illinois they'd look. I'm assuming Chicago?

[Justin_Chicago]

Originally Posted by IrishIllini

iPhone maker dangles $10B investment in U.S.—and Illinois is in the running -

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic....z59FvddD.dpuf

Lets hope this happens...I wonder where in Illinois they'd look. I'm assuming Chicago?

I really hope Illinois gets one of the three Tesla Gigafactories.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by IrishIllini

iPhone maker dangles $10B investment in U.S.—and Illinois is in the running -

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic....z59FvddD.dpuf

Lets hope this happens...I wonder where in Illinois they'd look. I'm assuming Chicago?

I think they would be silly to not choose Illinois based on what they say. It's centrally located and has by far the best transportation infrastructure to reach the rest of the country than anywhere else in the midwest. I am hoping they build something in Chicago itself actually. They could easily do it somewhere along I-55 if they wanted to build in the city itself.

[marothisu]

Preliminary metro area and city employment data is out for May.

* Chicago metro area at 4.1% unemployment for May, down from 4.2% in April. Total number of employed persons is up 38,796 versus April while the labor force population increased 33,836 people since April.

The number of employed persons is back to where it was for August 2016, though still a little less than July 2016.

This unemployment percentage is also now the same as the NYC Metro area, which had an increase of 0.2% unemployment percentage compared to April. Their labor force population only increased by 7347 people but the number of employed persons decreased by 16,055 people.

* Chicago the city is at 4.6% unemployment percentage for May, down from 4.7% in April. Total number of employed persons is up 13,866 people versus April while the labor force population increased by 13,179 people.

The number of employed persons is back to where it was for around August 2016.

The unemployment rate for NYC increased 0.3% bringing it to 4.2%. The number of employed persons there dropped 19,046 people with the labor force dropping 6050 people.

[Justin_Chicago]

Surgical device startup raises $1.4 million

A medical device startup based on the work of a Northwestern University surgeon has raised $1.4 million.

The tool electronically measures depths for screws for orthopedic surgery, replacing traditional analog gauges, says K.C. Hoos, vice president of development at Edge Surgical, a startup based at Matter, a health-tech incubator at the Merchandise Mart.

The company, like a lot of medical-related startups, raised its seed money from doctors and other angel investors.

Edge acquired 15 patents from Northwestern's Dr. John Kim, who developed the intellectual property. The company plans to develop a second device for spinal surgery.

Article: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...es-1-4-million

[chiphile]

Originally Posted by marothisu

I think they would be silly to not choose Illinois based on what they say. It's centrally located and has by far the best transportation infrastructure to reach the rest of the country than anywhere else in the midwest. I am hoping they build something in Chicago itself actually. They could easily do it somewhere along I-55 if they wanted to build in the city itself.

The entire Chicago south side border with Indiana should be lined up with modern factories. We need to face reality. Manufacturing will never come back full strength except in right to work (red) states.

Chicago is the ONLY global city literally next door to a right to work zone. If Rahm were smart, the south side red line extension goes straight to Gary Indiana, and he works with the governor of Indiana to sell a package deal to these manufacturers with both Illinois and Indiana working together.

Unemployed Chicagoans and unemployed Northwest Indiana residents will take a non-union job over a non-job (some will, others are simply unemployable, period).

Of course, this requires real political courage and coordination between a Democrat or Republican so it basically won't ever happen.

[Chi-Sky21]

Originally Posted by chiphile

The entire Chicago south side border with Indiana should be lined up with modern factories. We need to face reality. Manufacturing will never come back full strength except in right to work (red) states.

Chicago is the ONLY global city literally next door to a right to work zone. If Rahm were smart, the south side red line extension goes straight to Gary Indiana, and he works with the governor of Indiana to sell a package deal to these manufacturers with both Illinois and Indiana working together.

Unemployed Chicagoans and unemployed Northwest Indiana residents will take a non-union job over a non-job (some will, others are simply unemployable, period).

Of course, this requires real political courage and coordination between a Democrat or Republican so it basically won't ever happen.

I would also expand Gary airport....why on earth people want to build Peotone instead of upgrading Gary makes no sense to me. Gary should be upgraded and could take on some of the cargo load off of Ohare at least. Provide jobs to an area that desperately needs them. But i guess we do not care about people cause they live on the other side of some imaginary line and or vote a different way.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by chiphile

The entire Chicago south side border with Indiana should be lined up with modern factories. We need to face reality. Manufacturing will never come back full strength except in right to work (red) states.

Chicago is the ONLY global city literally next door to a right to work zone. If Rahm were smart, the south side red line extension goes straight to Gary Indiana, and he works with the governor of Indiana to sell a package deal to these manufacturers with both Illinois and Indiana working together.

Unemployed Chicagoans and unemployed Northwest Indiana residents will take a non-union job over a non-job (some will, others are simply unemployable, period).

Of course, this requires real political courage and coordination between a Democrat or Republican so it basically won't ever happen.

But this can be done without Rahm's cooperation.

You don't need a rail extension. People from the south side of Chicago can just drive to factory jobs in Gary.

But it's not happening. Which means that there are some fundamentals to this that don't work.

[aaron38]

Right-to-work is just globalist code for driving wages down as low as possible. My old company was all non-union. Didn't stop all the jobs from going to Malaysia and Mexico.
The corporate tax rate (and property taxes) probably has a lot to do with that.

[chiphile]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

But this can be done without Rahm's cooperation.

You don't need a rail extension. People from the south side of Chicago can just drive to factory jobs in Gary.

But it's not happening. Which means that there are some fundamentals to this that don't work.

I think Indiana as a state has completely written off northwest Indiana. They are blue counties and are basically considered Chicago in Indianapolis. The municipalities are left to their own devices then to attract jobs. Because they don't have money they don't have economic incentive groups like World Business Chicago.

World Business Chicago, though focused largely on bringing HQs to town, also woos companies to the suburbs if that's what the company is looking for. WBC should do a better job of selling NW Indiana as Chicago's "right to work" zone. This does require some cross-border cooperation between Chicago and the Indiana municipalities. We have strong history already in that regard with Gary-Chicago airport. Why not continue that partnership beyond the airport? Still, Indiana's governor would have to step in if state incentives are involved.

[marothisu]

It's true - manufacturing is not going to come back anytime soon majorly to the US. However, there has actually been an increase economically. The issue is that a lot of the factory jobs have been automated so the actual job creation has been far slower than the actual increase of GDP. This is pretty well documented.

As far as south Chicago goes, there's been a handful of new, large factories opened in the very south part of town with another one opening soon for the new CTA car manufacturing. There have also been a handful of new factories and warehouses opened up both in the city and in the suburbs along I-55 in the last few years. To say that nothing is happening in Chicago in regards to this industry is actually false. They could actually probably put something down there - borders with Indiana. They don't need the rail to go down there at all. I totally agree with someone else - the people who work at these factories usually end up living in the area and just drive to work.

But going back to the point about the job growth being slower than the actual increase of revenues. Obviously in Chicago MSA, the number of people who work in manufacturing is way down even compared to a decade ago and especially compared to a few decades ago. The last handful of years have seen and up and down within a little range of number of overall workers. It's up about 15K workers since the height of the recession, or a 3.6% increase. Compare that to both the LA and NYC metro areas and Chicago is actually doing better in this regard. Both of those other MSAs are down in employment even compared to the height of the recession. In the LA area, both January and May of this year (2017) are the lowest levels of employment for manufacturing of any month since at least 1990. The increase of total number of manufacturing workers is about the same for both Dallas and Houston areas, but since those areas have smaller total numbers it means their percentages are larger.

Source: https://www.bls.gov/data/
Employment, Hours, and Earnings - State and Metro Area. (Current Employment Statistics - CES)

[aaron38]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

I am surprised no one mentioned this yet, but the Retail Thrive Zone (RTZ) program announced the 51 businesses that have received $5.1 million in grants to build or expand their business on the South and West Sides. Some of the awardees announced were long established businesses in the neighborhood, but many of them are new ones such as a brewery in Englewood, a blues & jazz club in Austin, and a cyber cafe w/ a coffee bar in West Humboldt Park. This is on top of the 32 new/expanded business that were funded by the NOF current pool of $3.2 million.

If businesses are struggling, why did the state just raise their taxes and take money away from all their customers? This will simply be the source of a new round of political kickbacks. Good luck getting a grant without the proper reelection fund contribution.

Between property tax and income tax increases, $2500 of my disposable income just went poof. Apologies to any businesses who thought they were going to earn that money from me honestly.

[marothisu]

Amazon will double its office staff and space in Chicago

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...ent-in-chicago

Just a year after opening a starter office here, Amazon is doubling down on Chicago, literally. The e-commerce giant plans to double in size, making room for up to 400 workers downtown. The company opened a corporate office a year ago with 35,000 square feet at 227 W. Monroe St. and has grown to more than 200 workers. It recently signed a new lease to double the space.

The corporate positions here mainly fall into three parts of Amazon's sprawling empire: Amazon Web Services, its cloud-computing business; advertising and media; and operations for the e-commerce business. Individual jobs range from sales to technology.

It plans to add another 2,000 workers in the next 18 months as it opens fulfillment centers Monee, Aurora and Waukegan, alongside those already underway in Joliet and Romeoville, as well as downstate Edwardsville. There's also an Amazon Prime distribution center on Goose Island.

[Justin_Chicago]

CellTrak lands another $11 million

A Schaumburg tech company that helps home health care providers manage and monitor patients and workers in the field has raised $11 million.

CellTrak Technologies was founded a decade ago, but its software is taking off now as the retiree population begins to surge. It's also getting a lift from a government requirement that home visits for Medicaid patients be verified electronically.​

The funding was led by Boathouse Capital, based in Wayne, Pa., with participation from Northbrook-based MK Capital, which led a previous investment in the company. CellTrak has raised about $23 million.

The funding was led by Boathouse Capital, based in Wayne, Pa., with participation from Northbrook-based MK Capital, which led a previous investment in the company. CellTrak has raised about $23 million.

Article: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...thouse-capital

[Justin_Chicago]

The Hatchery plans $30M food incubator for East Garfield Park

The Hatchery, a food incubator on Chicago's Near Northwest Side, is expected to break ground this fall on a $30 million facility in East Garfield Park, possibly spurring an influx of jobs in an impoverished neighborhood if everything goes according to plan.

The project marks an intriguing addition to a changing food industry in Chicago, where large processed food companies are increasingly rubbing shoulders with start-ups in hopes of keeping pace with — or catching up to — shifting consumer tastes. The Hatchery will nurture small food businesses, while also bringing about 150 new jobs to East Garfield Park in the first year and up to 900 jobs over the first five years, city officials said.

The new 67,000-square-foot home for The Hatchery, a joint venture of Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago and Accion Chicago, is receiving a mix of public and private investment to get started: about $8 million in city support, mostly through tax increment financing, as well as undisclosed sums from giant food companies such as Chicago-based Conagra Brands and Battle Creek, Mich.-based Kellogg Company.

"It's an exciting project in an area that could use the investment. We plan to be there for a long, long time," Steve DeBretto, executive director of Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago, said Monday.

Construction is planned to begin in October or November, with the facility opening in fall 2018, DeBretto said.

The Hatchery hopes to support food start-ups as they grow with access to resources, expertise and exposure to established food companies. As members eventually outgrow the shared kitchen spaces, they can rent one of the 56 on-site private food production areas, DeBretto said.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel lauded the project in a news release, noting that it follows large food and beverages companies such as Conagra, Kraft Heinz, Beam Suntory and Mead Johnson that have moved headquarters to the city in recent years.

Article: http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...710-story.html