CHICAGO | Economic & Business Development

[bnk]

Originally Posted by IrishIllini

How many Boeing employees are IL based? Isn't most of their workforce in Seattle? Or is this metric just a measure of revenue and not job creation?

Caterpillar would have been a better example than Boeing for instance.

Boeing only has its HQ here most of its manufacturing is in the greater Seattle area. I would venture to say Boeing employs directly about 600 people in Chicago with about twice as amount support staff not related to Boeing working with them.

I should have left Boeing out of the discussion and equation because this measure is not measuring HQ's but manufacturing and other white collar output of the region.

For the record its still only a 6 at best.

[marothisu]

Interesting about the barometer and pretty good news. September employment data comes out tomorrow morning too. August had an uptick for the area - a few weeks ago the Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights metropolitan division numbers came out which showed a decline in unemployment rate. Total employment went down a little but more or less constant relatively (only a few thousand down).

We'll see what the entire MSA says though and city level. The MNI article states that companies have had a hard time attracting talent and whatever. This kind of hits home for the interviewing I've been doing all year (in NYC). We've interviewed a lot of people but very few end up being skilled enough. There's a lot of fluff on resumes or people who think they know more than they do (again for NYC but I'm sure most areas have the same issues).

[marothisu]

September 2017 employment data is out.

* City wide the unemployment rate is at 5.4% which was a decrease from 6.1% in August which is basically in line with June and July rates.

Unfortunately the employment level dropped 1200 people, but the numbers are still above 3 of the first 4 months of the year. Labor force dropped nearly 11,000 people but still higher than 4 of the first 5 months of the year.

By contrast, the unemployment rates in LA and NYC are 5.1% and 5.0% respectively, so Chicago is still in that range.

* Chicago MSA unemployment rate is at 4.7%, down from 5.3% in August. It's now the same rate as July. Unfortunately employment dropped by 8500 people while the labor force dropped nearly 40,000 people.

By contrast, the NYC metro area is also at 4.7% unemployment. NYC metro area employment also decreased (-25K about) while their labor force went down by nearly 35K people. LA's MSA unemployment rate is 4.5%

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by marothisu

September 2017 employment data is out.

* City wide the unemployment rate is at 5.4% which was a decrease from 6.1% in August which is basically in line with June and July rates.

Unfortunately the employment level dropped 1200 people, but the numbers are still above 3 of the first 4 months of the year. Labor force dropped nearly 11,000 people but still higher than 4 of the first 5 months of the year.

By contrast, the unemployment rates in LA and NYC are 5.1% and 5.0% respectively, so Chicago is still in that range.

* Chicago MSA unemployment rate is at 4.7%, down from 5.3% in August. It's now the same rate as July. Unfortunately employment dropped by 8500 people while the labor force dropped nearly 40,000 people.

By contrast, the NYC metro area is also at 4.7% unemployment. NYC metro area employment also decreased (-25K about) while their labor force went down by nearly 35K people. LA's MSA unemployment rate is 4.5%

Hey, where do you find the City level data? I can never find that.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

Hey, where do you find the City level data? I can never find that.

https://www.bls.gov/lau/#data

Pick either "One Screen" or "Two Screen" option which leads you to pick geographies based on type (city, metro area, etc) and then you can pick the data points you want to see. They usually default to about 10 years of data, but at the top you can adjust the range of dates to see back to 1990.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by marothisu

https://www.bls.gov/lau/#data

Pick either "One Screen" or "Two Screen" option which leads you to pick geographies based on type (city, metro area, etc) and then you can pick the data points you want to see. They usually default to about 10 years of data, but at the top you can adjust the range of dates to see back to 1990.

Got it, thanks!

[left of center]

DNAinfo Chicago shuts down

Joe Ricketts, the billionaire founder of TD Ameritrade who owned DNAinfo's New York and Chicago sites, has shut down both a week after the New York newsroom voted to join a union.

The New York Times reports that the decision "puts 115 journalists out of work, both at the New York operations that unionized, and at those in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington that did not."

The Chicago newsroom, which launched in 2012, employed dozens of journalists.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...ago-shuts-down


DNAinfo's Chicago site now loads only a letter explaining that the site has been shut down. It's a shame, used to get a decent amount of news from there.

[marothisu]

I think Omnicom Media Group (global marketing firm, #179 on Fortune 500, HQ in NYC) may be opening an office in Chicago (don't think there is one yet - someone correct me if I'm wrong). There was a building permit issued on 10/23 for $14.5M in their name for 3 floors of 225 N Michigan Avenue . 2 of those floors as far as I can see are completely or mostly vacant right now. Architect is Gensler. If it is a new office, this looks pretty big at 3 different floors.

[ithakas]

Originally Posted by marothisu

I think Omnicom Media Group (global marketing firm, #179 on Fortune 500, HQ in NYC) may be opening an office in Chicago (don't think there is one yet - someone correct me if I'm wrong). There was a building permit issued on 10/23 for $14.5M in their name for 3 floors of 225 N Michigan Avenue . 2 of those floors as far as I can see are completely or mostly vacant right now. Architect is Gensler. If it is a new office, this looks pretty big at 3 different floors.

OMD (a subsidiary of Omnicom) is already here and in the same building, I believe.

The advertising world is strange in that most of the big agencies are owned by a few holding companies, which create entire new subsidiaries so that they don't have to hold competing clients. Hearts & Science, another Omnicom Media subsidiary, was basically created for their Proctor & Gamble business, for example.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by ithakas

OMD (a subsidiary of Omnicom) is already here and in the same building, I believe.

The advertising world is strange in that most of the big agencies are owned by a few holding companies, which create entire new subsidiaries so that they don't have to hold competing clients. Hearts & Science, another Omnicom Media subsidiary, was basically created for their Proctor & Gamble business, for example.

How big is their office? It looks like 2 of the 3 floors in the permit are mostly vacant right now.

[the urban politician]

A San Francisco Fintech startup establishes a Chicago presence (which also becomes dual headquartered here):

https://globenewswire.com/news-relea...Ecosystem.html

”Bento is building a modern business banking platform that works for companies across all industries and locations, and Chicago is key to that strategy. This city is rapidly becoming a hub for fintech, providing Bento with access to the remarkable and specialized talent we need to build an enduring, market-leading company,” said Farhan Ahmad, CEO of Bento. “Chicago is the ideal home as Bento expands to provide more businesses with tools specifically designed to stamp out the misuse of funds and streamline expense management overall.”

[IrishIllini]

^
More FinTech jobs, please.

[Justin_Chicago]

Northwestern spinout gets another $11 million

Exicure, which is developing gene-regulating therapies for inflammation, cancer and other diseases, has raised $31.5 million in the past two months. The company raised $20 million from private investors in September. The most recent investment was led by Luye Pharma Group, a Chinese drug maker.

Now based in Skokie, Exicure was founded in 2011 as AuraSense Therapeutics by Northwestern nanotech researchers Chad Mirkin and Shad Thaxton. It previously raised $42 million from investors including Bill Gates, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Aon founder Pat Ryan and Groupon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky.

The company employs about 25 people. CEO David Giljohann says Exicure will use the funding to continue clinical development of the company's treatments.

Article: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...on-led-by-luye

[Justin_Chicago]

Sales-intelligence startup pivots to paying customers

Charlie recently raised $1.6 million from GoAhead Ventures, a Silicon Valley fund that also backed Chicago startup Popular Pays. Frazin previously raised $1.8 million from Lightbank and Hyde Park Venture Partners.

Frazin's new app, called Detective, aims to automate the research that salespeople do before they make a call. It focuses on browser automation, automatically bringing up information about sales prospects. Detective works with Salesforce software. When a salesperson clicks on a customer or prospect in the company's internal Salesforce database, Detective automatically gathers information about it and brings it up in the user's browser. The app can be triggered in other ways, too.

Frazin says customers pay $50 to $150 a month per user for Detective. He says his company has gone from losing money to cash flow-positive last month. Headcount has grown to a dozen from five people just six months ago. He plans to use the new investment to continue hiring, primarily in sales and technology.

Article: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...es-1-6-million

[the urban politician]

Anyone read the news? Outcome Health is in some serious shit...

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Anyone read the news? Outcome Health is in some serious shit...

Ouch - well potentially. Depends on how that trial goes. They've been accused but it doesn't mean it's automatically true or they will lose. We'll see - hoping they didn't commit any type of fraud.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by Justin_Chicago

Northwestern spinout gets another $11 million
...

Surely they mean "spin-off"? A spin-out is always a bad thing.

[left of center]

Chicago could lose bid for Mars Wrigley U.S. candy headquarters to New Jersey

Mars Wrigley Confectionery could choose Newark, N.J., over Chicago for its U.S. headquarters after being approved for more than $30 million in New Jersey tax credits Tuesday.

If Mars Wrigley indeed selects New Jersey, the company would shift some 200 Chicago jobs to Newark and also Hackettstown, where the company is considering upgrading existing facilities, according to a New Jersey Economic Development Authority board document summarizing the project.

It’s unclear whether Chicago’s still in the running.

Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...115-story.html

Thats odd. I thought Chicago already got the North American HQ from LA back in September?

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by left of center

Chicago could lose bid for Mars Wrigley U.S. candy headquarters to New Jersey



Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...115-story.html

Thats odd. I thought Chicago already got the North American HQ from LA back in September?

Interesting. NJ is handing out tax breaks like candy . I think the state offered Amazon $7b.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by left of center

Chicago could lose bid for Mars Wrigley U.S. candy headquarters to New Jersey



Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...115-story.html

Thats odd. I thought Chicago already got the North American HQ from LA back in September?

That was the food business that moved to Chicago from LA. This is the candy business. Mars has not made a decision publicly yet, I would not be too concerned about the NJ incentives.