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 number of unemployment insurance claims in Cook County decreased by 3.5% year-over-year from 16,229 in April 2015 to 15,653 in April 2016.
• The Chicago (city) economy added an estimated 12,602 jobs year-over-year, led by increases in the education & health, leisure & hospitality, and retail sectors.
• The number of patents issued in Chicago (city) increased by 25.4%, from 610 in May 2016 YTD to 765 in May 2016 YTD.
• Venture capital investment in the Chicago area increased by 81.8%, from $97.6M in Q1-2015 to $177.5M in Q1-2016.

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