Chicago gets lowest employment score since 2009

Chicago’s worst employment climate score since 2009 drove a 25th month of business decline.

Chicago businesses reported the lowest recorded employment score since May 2009, according to the Chicago Business Barometer.

For the second consecutive month, no survey respondents reported increased employment.

The analysis gave Chicago an overall score of 43.5 in December 2025, the 25th consecutive month of decline. A score below 50 indicates decline.

The barometer surveys supply chain professionals across industries on a range of factors, including the number of new orders, inventories, production, employment and supplier deliveries. It asks businesses whether there have been increases, decreases or no change in these factors for their companies, then calculates a single overall indicator of the health of Chicago’s economy.

The employment score measures whether companies report increasing employment, which none did. Chicago’s job market has remained challenging for years. Chicago-area unemployment stood at 4.5% as of November 2025 compared to a national rate of 4.3%, the latest data showed. Chicago’s unemployment increased from 4.1% in September.

Most of the December job gains in the Chicago area, which includes Cook and 12 other counties, were in government, which added 27,400 jobs. Education and health added 16,600 jobs.

Chicago’s unemployment would be higher if so many people had not stopped looking for work. Illinois’ labor force participation rate has declined from 65.1% in December 2024 to 64.1% in September 2025. Illinois’ labor force level is down by 83,880, many of those in the Chicago area.

In every quarter from September 2022 to July 2025, employment increased more nationally than in Chicago.

The contraction of business activity remained widespread across survey categories. Order backlogs rebounded somewhat by 12.3 points, after a 21.5 point decrease the previous month. Inventories also declined.

While the U.S. economy as a whole grew 2.9% in 2023, the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin region grew at only 1.4%, according to federal data.

To stop the slide, the city of Chicago needs to focus on pro-growth policies such as:

• Establishing fiscal stability. Research shows fiscal stability is a prerequisite for economic growth and is essential for attracting private investment and expanding the tax base.
• Simplifying the tax code to make it easier for businesses to operate and grow.
• Reducing corporate property taxes, which are the highest among large cities and more than double the average, according to a recent report.    

The city avoided the job-killing proposal for a “head tax” of $33 per employee for businesses over 500 people. But it did increase the tax on cloud-based computer services from 11% to 15%.

Chicago needs to foster business, not find more harmful taxation that further extends its decline.