Chicago Sees Steady, Significant Jobs Growth Month On Month
Are you looking for a job in the Chicago area? Whether you want to return to the workforce or just want to change career paths, you might be happy know that there has been an uptick in job offerings in April. Jobs from health care to sales are all seeing increases in listings.
According to data released by the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES), the Chicago metro area posted 150,463 jobs ads online in April 2013, representing an increase of 7.7 percent from the 139,704 jobs posted online in March 2013. The metro area also saw an increase of 8.2 percent from jobs posted online in April 2012. According to IDES, the Chicago region comprises Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties.
Statewide, 197,578 seasonally adjusted job ads were posted online in April 2013, representing a gain of 4.7 percent from March and a gain of 9.5 percent from April 2012.
What fields showed increases in online job postings in the Chicago area? In a report by IDES, 22 of the 23 major occupational groups showed increases in April 2013 from March.
The largest category with online job ads in the Chicago area was computer and mathematical occupations, which increased 3.7 percent from 23,863 job ads in March to 24,736 job ads. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs in this category include web developers, system administrators, statisticians and research analysts.
The transportation and material moving occupations category saw a significant gain in online job ads in percent, increasing 20.5 percent from 4,920 online ads in March 2013 to 5,929 online ads in April. Jobs in this category include air traffic controllers, bus drivers and flight attendants.
Health care practitioners and technical occupations online job ads also saw an increase of 5.5 percent from March 2013, from 9,412 online ads to 9,930 in April. In this category, jobs include dentists, chiropractors, registered nurses and nurse assistants.
Military-specific occupations was the only category to decrease in that time-frame, from four online job postings in March to three in April.
Megan Horst-Hatch is a mother, runner, baker, gardener, knitter, and other words that end in "-er." She loves nothing more than a great cupcake, and writes at I'm a Trader Joe's Fan. Her work can be found at Examiner.com.
