Chicago

Chicago

Growing Companies Choose Chicago

With a long history of welcoming innovators and a large cluster of Fortune 500 company HQs, Chicago has more recently attracted a number of fintech, consumer and big data startups that are finding their growth in the Windy City. With plenty of museums, music, and food to keep residents entertained.

Facebook

Facebook

Facebook

Google

Amazon

Amazon

Tesla

Uber

Salesforce

Salesforce

Boeing

Boeing

Glassdoor

Glassdoor

Top Companies have thousands of employees in Chicago

6th year in a row Chicago has led the nation in corporate expansions and relocations

#3 tech talent momentum market measuring the growth acceleration of tech labor pools1

36 Fortune 500 Companies in Chicago

2nd largest HQ cluster in the U.S.

$2.2B VC Funding in 2019

“Since 2013, bay area-based companies have leased two million square feet of office space in Chicago”
—The Business Journals

:Talent

With the surge in jobs, population in the urban core has jumped 50% since 2000, double the national growth rate. Half of those people are under 35. Plus, the Chicago workforce has the most college grads per capita of the five largest U.S. cities

Chicago Talent
Chicago Talent

Since 2013, Chicago’s tech talent pool has grown 10.5%, or by about 167K workers8

Chicago is the 6th largest tech market in the country8

34% of population have Bachelor’s degree or higher with growing demand for highly-skilled workers11

#3 Tech Talent Momentum Market
—CBRE

:Cost

Although one of the largest and most influential cities in the U.S., Chicago is affordable by comparison to other large cities.

Chicago Cost

Chicago keeps income taxes simple: Illinois has a flat income tax of 4.95%10

If the Chicago region were a country, it would be the world’s 20th largest economy11

Consistently out-performed US average on productivity11

One of the Most Influential Cities in the U.S.
—SmartAsset

:Quality of Life

Chicago QOL

An Unrivaled Value
—World Business Chicago

:Connection

Chicago’s long history as a connective city remains a notable strength both in location and infrastructure.

Chicago Connection

Nonstop destinations9

See full list at nsflight.com

Chicago Flights
O’Hare is the most internationally connected airport in the U.S., 3rd globally12

1400 daily departures from Chicago airports12

Ranked 7th best Urban transportation system globally12

:Strategic Sectors

Advanced Manufacturing

Advanced Manufacturing13

  • Manufacturing is among the region’s largest and most prominent sectors
  • Manufacturing represents 53.9B GRP with a projected growth rate of 3.3%
  • Subsectors include Metalworking Machinery, Chemicals and Advanced Materials, and Medical Device & Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
Technology

Technology

  • First US Exascale super-computer at Argonne Laboratory in 2021
  • 1871 is the #1 tech incubator in the world.
  • In 2016, Illinois companies invested $1.1B in computer and electronic products R&D, and $823M in IT & Software R&D
  • #14 Global Startup Ecosystem (Startup Genome)
CleanTech/ Smart Grid

Logistics/ Transportation

  • Chicago has a full suite of transportation, distribution, and logistics companies
  • Over 14,593 TDL firms—the highest number in the US, including 24 of top 25 third party logistics providers.
  • #3 largest intermodal system globally, 200M consumers within 500-mile radius
  • Chicago is nation’s rail hub
Food Industry

Food Industry

  • 1.2K food manufacturing companies and over 55K employees—top in US
  • 72K of the nation’s top farms cover nearly 76% of Illinois’ land area
  • The largest food and beverage manufacturing economy by output at $7.2B
  • Illinois’ $180B processed food sales ranks #1 in US
Biosciences

Life Sciences

  • #1 city for Bioengineers & Biomedical engineers
  • Ranks in the top 10 nationally for employment of chemists (#6), life scientists (#10), medical scientists (#9), microbiologists (#8), and biochemists (#10)
  • Chicago MSA has the 3rd largest medical/life science industry

:Growing companies choose Chicago

Chicago’s economy is built on a diverse mix of industries and strategic focus. Recent investment in the region includes:

Glassdoor

Glassdoor

52,000 ft2 and 800 jobs
Google

Google

132K ft2 and 1,000 employees

Beam

Facebook

263,000 ft2 and 2,000 employees

Salesforce

Salesforce

500k ft2 and 2,000 employees

BlueCrew

BlueCrew

Moved HQ from SF and hiring 250 employees

Uber

Uber

450,000 ft2, 2,000 jobs, and $200M invested

LinkedIn

LinkedIn

185,000 ft2 & employs more than 750 people
GrubHub

GrubHub

HQ in Chicago and 2,000 employees

Orbitz

Orbitz

HQ in Chicago with 800 employees
Qualtrics

Qualtrics

25,000 ft2 and 200 jobs

Wix

Amazon

70,000 ft2 and 400 tech jobs

G2

G2

66,000 ft2 and 500 new hires

The only American inland metro area with a global footprint11

Chicago houses 50+ large corporate headquarters11

Illinois ranked #2 for tech startups, with 773 in 2009-1011

Sources

1 2020 Scoring Tech Talent, cbre.us; 2 C2ER, coli.org; 3 Cushman and Wakefield Chicago Office MarketBeat Report Q2 2020; 4 Cushman and Wakefield Chicago Industrial MarketBeat Report Q2 2020; 5 Zillow.com; 6 Statisticalatlas.com; 7 FRED Economic Data, fred.stlouisfed.org; 8 The Business Journals, bizjournals.com; 9 nsflights.com; 10 SmartAsset, smartasset.com; 11 World Business Chicago A Plan for Economic Growth and Jobs, chicago.gov; 12 World Business Chicago, worldbusinesschicago.com;