• The city of Chicago posted a preliminary unemployment rate of 5.6% before seasonal adjustment – this is down 1.2 percentage points from the October 2014 rate of 6.8% and the lowest October rate since 2006.
• The number of employed Chicago (city) residents increased by 5,736 compared to the year prior (from 1,279,720 in October 2014 to an estimated 1,285,456 in October 2015).
• Unemployed Chicago residents dropped by 15,923 compared to the year prior (from 92,640 to an estimated 76,717 in October 2015).
• The Chicago (city) economy has expanded by an estimated 15,540 private jobs since October 2014, mostly attributed to professional and business services (+8,655) and educational and health services (+7,935) industries.

Chaired by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, World Business Chicago is the public-private partnership leading the Plan for Economic Growth and Jobs in order to drive business development, cultivate talent, and put Chicago at the forefront of the global economy.

WBC’s “Economic Briefs” track indicators from month to month to gauge the strength of several aspects of Chicago’s economy, including unemployment, population, venture capital, job openings and new hires, home sales, tourism, etc. This data provides a clear analytic framework for specific Plan strategies and initiatives. For a summary of these and other economic indicators, refer to WBC’s monthly Chicago By The Numbers.