CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[the urban politician]

Local film and TV biz on a roll, right down LVDW’s alley:

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/greg...e-growth-ahead

[bnk]

Well we did it again


https://siteselection.com/issues/201...hq2-or-not.cfm

2018 Top Metros Project Rankings


Metros with Population over 1 Million

2018 2017 Metro State Projects

1 1 Chicago-Naperville-Elgin Ill.-Ind.-Wis. 422

2 3 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Texas 207
3 4 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell Ga. 166
4 2 Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land Texas 165
5 6 Cincinnati Ohio-Ky.-Ind. 103
6 5 New York-Newark-Jersey City N.Y.-N.J.-Pa. 84
7 7 Columbus Ohio 81
8 Detroit-Warren-Dearborn Mich. 79
9 8 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va. 69
10 St. Louis Mo.-Ill. 63


...

Return to Tech Glory

Maybe one reason Amazon didn’t come to Chicago was that so many other companies already have.

Greater Chicago once again has finished No. 1 in the nation in Site Selection’s annual Top Metros rankings, based on qualified corporate facility investment projects during the previous calendar year. The projects range from the massive distribution cluster in Will County populated by such firms as Diageo and IKEA to the office and manufacturing projects landing in such places as Arlington Heights, Wheeling, Bolingbrook, Elgin, Carol Stream and Naperville from the likes of Faber-Castell, IHerb, G&W Electric and Givaudan Flavors.

But the core of activity is in Cook County, where projects last year came from Facebook, Walgreens, Northrop Grumman and Komatsu, among others. Joining their ranks early this year (with a project to be counted toward the next year-end tally) was Ford Motor Company, which pledged to invest $1 billion and create 500 new jobs at its Chicago Stamp

Some would say the magnetism is already pulling in plenty: The 2018 Cyberstates report from the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) ranked Chicago No. 8 in the country in net tech employment and 13th in year-on-year tech job growth between 2016 and 2017. The estimated direct contribution of the tech sector to the Chicago economy is $43.4 billion, or 7.3 percent of the total.

Pritzker says the P33 strategy derives from a serious look in the mirror led by research from Accenture, Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey & Co., so that area leaders can know how the region stacks up against other cities and answer the question, as she puts it, “Where do we have an authentic right to dominate because of the assets we have?

“If you think about technology and why somebody chooses to put a company in various places, you choose it for many reasons,” she continues. “Talent. Both digital and physical connectivity. You need a welcoming place that is also interesting for people to live in, but you need a healthy technology ecosystem so if people want to make it their home, they and their partners have options for living and working. Industry 4.0, bioscience, food and agriculture, business technology — these are clusters Chicago has enormous strengths in. With P33, we bring universities, incubators, business leaders in pure tech and all kinds of companies, labs, commercialization organizations, training organizations and venture capitalists all together.”

In addition to hosting the second highest concentration of computer science graduates in the U.S. and ranking sixth in the number of STEM workers who live there, Greater Chicago startups lead the nation in venture returns, with an 8.5x multiple on invested capital. Some of that capital has come thanks to the efforts of venture capitalist and billionaire J.B. Pritzker, Penny Pritzker’s brother and the newly elected governor of Illinois.

“I am biased,” his sister admits. Asked about the challenges the state faces despite its biggest city’s shine, she says, “I think our new governor is trying to tackle some of the challenges not tackled by his predecessors — stabilize the pension system, make sure we’re investing in the education system. And he’s doing it in a transparent and authentic way, telling the people ‘Here’s what we need to do.’ I wouldn’t bet against us, because we’re a very resilient place, and on the upswing. Your magazine’s ranking is a recognition of all the hard work that’s already been done.”


ing and Assembly plants that will bring total payroll to 5,800.


…















To put it in perspective, Chicagoland had more expansions and relocations than Dallas metro, Houston metro and Washing DC metros combined.

The same is true if you add up NYC and area, Atlanta area, and Houston areas, still more projects in Chicagoland than both options of the three metros combined.



BTW if anyone is not familiar with Site Selection Magazine, it is published in Atlanta Georgia BTW.


That's incredible.










…

[moorhosj]

Uber expanding their Uber Freight workforce:

Uber employs more than 1,000 people in the Chicago area, with several hundred of them working for Uber Freight. The company plans to double that unit’s headcount in the next year, Uber Freight Director of Carrier Operations Sagar Shah told the Tribune.

DocuSign opens Chicago office after their Spring CM acquisition (no new jobs, but a newly IPO'd tech company setting up shop):

Last year DocuSign bought Chicago software maker SpringCM for $220 million. On Wednesday, the San Francisco company announced that it is officially moving into SpringCM’s current location at 180 N. LaSalle St., and it will rebrand the office under the DocuSign brand. The office currently holds around 200 employees.

The company says the Chicago space will serve as one its “key office hubs,” along with its locations in Seattle and San Francisco.

[sixo1]

I feel this story may be inaccurate:

https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/03...ost-of-living/

This story claims that between 2012 and 2017 Chicago had a net loss of 13,757 millennials. I had posted on May 24th, 2018 that between 2010 to 2016 Chicago had gained 23,088 millennials. Maybe marothisu can look into this.

IMO...

I recently moved from Washington state to Chicago. At first, I was hesitant that there might not be many opportunities for me in Chicago. Now that I have been here for 3 months, I realized that many of the jobs I am finding are NOT on job listing websites. I have a Ph.D. in Plant Science and am currently a postdoctoral scholar. I could have chosen to be a postdoc in California or the Boston-Washington corridor. That's where most of the jobs are, but with an average gross postdoc salary of $48,000, there is no way I could afford those places. Chicago is not cheap, but I can save money here! You might wonder why I didn't stay in Washington state. There weren't many jobs in the plant sciences there (computer science is king there). Anyhow, I would not be able to afford Seattle either.

[SIGSEGV]

^ Yes, Chicago has an unusually closed high-skill employment environment. People who move here with no connections often have trouble finding a job, but if you're a postdoc (woohoo, now I'm not the only UC postdoc on here!) it's easy to meet the "right" people.

[Vlajos]

What is the definition of a millenial?

In 2017 there were 745,593 people aged 20-34.

In 2012 there were 732,368 people aged 20-34.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by sixo1

I could have chosen to be a postdoc in California or the Boston-Washington corridor. That's where most of the jobs are,

^ I keep hearing this for like. Every. Single. Industry.

So then, what the hell do people in Chicago do, exactly? We have oodles of jobs downtown which are only growing, but then that same line pops up over and over again "most of the jobs in this industry are on the coasts"

So I take it in Chicago people are just sitting at desks getting paid to stare at computers?

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ I keep hearing this for like. Every. Single. Industry.

So then, what the hell do people in Chicago do, exactly? We have oodles of jobs downtown which are only growing, but then that same line pops up over and over again "most of the jobs in this industry are on the coasts"

So I take it in Chicago people are just sitting at desks getting paid to stare at computers?

The majority of people in their industry don't know where all the jobs are. They just know about areas that have a lot of jobs in their industry. I work in tech and most people still don't have a clue that there's a lot of tech jobs in areas like Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, San Diego, LA, Toronto, Montreal, etc. They mostly think that the Bay Area, NYC, and Seattle..And maybe Boston and DC are the only areas with a lot of tech jobs.

Frankly most people aren't in a position to know. They just regurgitate information they read in an article once or what's the accepted information. Every industry has a "promised land" or 2. A lot of people are clueless about these things, truly, even in their own industries outside of these areas.

Chicago being a closed network can be true, but a lot of jobs can definitely be found online if you know anything about finding jobs online.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

What is the definition of a millenial?

In 2017 there were 745,593 people aged 20-34.

In 2012 there were 732,368 people aged 20-34.

Typically I've seen it referred to as anyone born from 1980 to 2000, sometimes cut off at 1995 or some other year in the late 90's.

Your statistics are a rational way to look at it, what is the number of young people living in the city. The fretting over millenials moving out comes from the fact that a higher percentage of any generation tend to live in the suburbs the older that generation gets. Millenials are moving to the burbs now that they get older, they are just doing it at a much slower rate than previous generations.

However, as your stats show, the number of people under the age of 34 continues to grow meaning that, even as Millenials trickle out, Gen Z is more than taking their place.

[sixo1]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ I keep hearing this for like. Every. Single. Industry.

So then, what the hell do people in Chicago do, exactly? We have oodles of jobs downtown which are only growing, but then that same line pops up over and over again "most of the jobs in this industry are on the coasts"

So I take it in Chicago people are just sitting at desks getting paid to stare at computers?

When you search on job listing websites for opportunities based on my skill set, California and the Boston-Washington corridor dominate in the number of listings. Chicago is the third largest market with Lake County having the highest concentration of jobs. St. Louis and Indianapolis are decent markets as well.

[moorhosj]

Originally Posted by sixo1

When you search on job listing websites for opportunities based on my skill set, California and the Boston-Washington corridor dominate in the number of listings. Chicago is the third largest market with Lake County having the highest concentration of jobs. St. Louis and Indianapolis are decent markets as well.

Healthcare/biotech? Express Scripts in St. Louis and Eli Lilly in Indy.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Typically I've seen it referred to as anyone born from 1980 to 2000, sometimes cut off at 1995 or some other year in the late 90's.

Your statistics are a rational way to look at it, what is the number of young people living in the city. The fretting over millenials moving out comes from the fact that a higher percentage of any generation tend to live in the suburbs the older that generation gets. Millenials are moving to the burbs now that they get older, they are just doing it at a much slower rate than previous generations.

However, as your stats show, the number of people under the age of 34 continues to grow meaning that, even as Millenials trickle out, Gen Z is more than taking their place.

Thanks, wasn't sure what the years are for millenials.

Looking at ages 35-39 in 2012, there were 199,982 people in that group.

In 2017, there were 203,462 in that age group.

I'm not sure where the info is coming from that Chicago is losing millenials.

[OrdoSeclorum]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

... but then that same line pops up over and over again "most of the jobs in this industry are on the coasts"

So I take it in Chicago people are just sitting at desks getting paid to stare at computers?

Informed speculation on my part, but I have a friend who was recruiter for Google. She said they had like 30,000 unfilled openings. That's what I remember. I could be off by an order of magnitude. It was over drinks. The point was, they were hiring literally as fast as they could. If there are 3000 similar jobs open in Chicago at the same time, that's a lot! Even 300 is a lot of openings in one field any one location. But if you've got a 45,000 foot view, 1000 jobs outside of Silicon Valley might look like a rounding error in Silicon Valley.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

Thanks, wasn't sure what the years are for millenials.

Looking at ages 35-39 in 2012, there were 199,982 people in that group.

In 2017, there were 203,462 in that age group.

I'm not sure where the info is coming from that Chicago is losing millenials.

Shitty data/analysis, like that WBEZ article that claimed that the middle class is almost literally gone in Chicago because they used a definition of middle class that I don't think anybody actually uses.

[sixo1]

Originally Posted by moorhosj

Healthcare/biotech? Express Scripts in St. Louis and Eli Lilly in Indy.

Yes, and the ag biotechs: Monsanto/Bayer in St. Louis and Dow AgroSciences in Indy.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Shitty data/analysis, like that WBEZ article that claimed that the middle class is almost literally gone in Chicago because they used a definition of middle class that I don't think anybody actually uses.

Yeah, that one was terrible. Very disappointed that BEZ would publish trash like that.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

Yeah, that one was terrible. Very disappointed that BEZ would publish trash like that.

It's sad - they basically implied that anything over like $80K was "upper class" LOL. WTF? That's absolutely insane and stupid. They used per capita to see what's "middle class" even though pretty much everyone's definition has to do with household income. I can't believe this shit ever made it by any editors much less the public actually believing it.

The middle class in Chicago is shrinking in the same way it's shrinking in NYC, DC, SF, San Jose, etc but it's not even close to gone.

[the urban politician]

Coyote Logistics opening 500 person tech office in Detroit:

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/logi...0-job-tech-hub

A Chicago company, and even though it's not Chicago news, I'm still glad they're helping out our "rustbelt" buddy out east.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Coyote Logistics opening 500 person tech office in Detroit:

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/logi...0-job-tech-hub

A Chicago company, and even though it's not Chicago news, I'm still glad they're helping out our "rustbelt" buddy out east.

Yup, as much as we like to focus on HQs and sucking up as many relocations as possible, the most potent economic forces are organic growths of local firms. News like this is great for Chicago if only because it means Coyote is so healthy they need to expand elsewhere as well as here. Several hundred jobs in another city also probably means several dozen new managerial or business services positions created at their HQ.

[Chisouthside]

That's what it seems like to me. In silicon valley its super easy to get hired and here ive had more trouble.

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

^ Yes, Chicago has an unusually closed high-skill employment environment. People who move here with no connections often have trouble finding a job, but if you're a postdoc (woohoo, now I'm not the only UC postdoc on here!) it's easy to meet the "right" people.