State of the Economy 2025 is World Business Chicago's annual look at the data, decisions, and trends shaping Chicagoland's economic future. Produced by the WBC Research Center, this report tracks how the region performed against a backdrop of real national headwinds — tariffs, federal spending cuts, and a rapidly shifting AI-driven economy — and shows that Chicagoland's diversity and resilience carried it through. The headline: a $929 billion regional economy that remains the third-largest metro economy in the country, and a record 223 Pro-Chicagoland Decisions that brought an estimated 19,600 jobs and $1.7 billion in earnings to the region in 2025.

The report moves through the full picture of the regional economy — business investment and expansion, macroeconomic conditions, the labor market, talent and education, industry dynamics, business formation, capital investment, trade and global positioning, housing, and pricing — grounding each in the latest available data from sources like the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau, Pitchbook, and Moody's Analytics. It doesn't shy away from the harder trends, either: cooling early-stage capital, rising housing costs, and shifting immigration and trade policy all get a clear-eyed look alongside the wins.

State of the Economy 2025 is designed to be used. Whether you're evaluating an expansion, shaping workforce strategy, or making the case for Chicago within your own organization, this report offers a current, credible view of the region's performance and trajectory — and shows how that performance connects to World Business Chicago's longer-term strategy laid out in Chicago 2050.