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 14,581 jobs year-over-year, a 1.2 percent improvement since December 2015. This growth is driven by absolute gains in the leisure & hospitality (+6,523), transportation, warehousing, & utilities (+4,155), and professional and business services (+3,132) sectors.
• Startup funding remained consistent YOY, with $1,701M in startup funding in 2016 compared to $1,721M in 2015.
• Business bankruptcies in Cook County decreased by 17.4% YOY in Q4-2016.
• The total number of patents issued in Chicago (city) increased by 3.0%, from 1,720 in 2015 to 1,771 in 2016.

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