The Partnership analyzes data on Unemployment Insurance claimants from the Illinois Department of Employment Security to gain insight into the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the local economy. This includes identifying the occupations and industries that have produced the highest numbers or shares of claimants and the demographics of these claimants. The Partnership also looks at online job postings as an indicator of how steeply the volume of postings in each sector dropped and the rate at which job posting volumes are starting to recover.

Finally, we highlight research into how workers of color make up a disproportionately large share of the face-to-face workforce and how essential workers and vulnerable workers are concentrated in some of Chicago’s high-needs neighborhoods. These high need neighborhoods align with the high concentrations of The Partnership’s customers and the areas that will directly benefit from jobs and training through the Chicago COVID Contact Tracing Corps.

WHERE ARE THE JOBS?

(GROUPED BY OCCUPATION)

The Partnership uses the Labor Insight tool from Burning Glass Technologies to analyze hundreds of thousands of job postings pulled from internet job boards. This data helps The Partnership understand the current job demand and employer needs in Cook County and its 130 municipalities. The chart below shows weekly job posting volume, by occupational group, from mid-January 2020 through mid-August. The chart shows the occupations for which posting volume has increased most sharply (Business and Financial; Office and Administration; Transportation Distribution and Logistics (TDL); and Information Technology (IT); and those for which total posting volume has been flatter, or has decreased(Arts, Entertainment, and Sports and Food Service).

The Partnership’s archived quarterly “Where are the Jobs” reports can be found here: