The Driver's Seat
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🪩 Chicago's Digital Workforce

🪩 Chicago's Digital Workforce

AND Register for Chicago Tech Events

Landon Campbell
April 08, 2024

53rd Edition

📍 This Week’s Lineup:

👨🏾‍💻 Windy City Hackathon

🪩 Chicago's Digital Workforce

📊 Chart of the Week

📆 Events Around the City

🔙 Previous Editions of the Driver’s Seat

👨🏾‍💻 Windy City Hackathon

We co-hosted a 72-hour hackathon this past weekend in collaboration with OraHacks. It took place at our office, where we welcomed 50 hackers across 14 teams.

Some notable projects from the weekend:

AI-powered platform for injury recovery and prevention.
Short-form multimodal news platform (turning articles into videos)
AI tool for preference-based neighborhood selection.
A comprehensive employee benefits platform designed for startups.
AI copilot for classroom-ready simulations.

Stay tuned for our next hackathon which will be taking place during Chicago tech week in July.

🪩 Chicago's Digital Workforce

Chicago's tech workforce has expanded by 18% over the past decade, significantly outpacing the local economy’s growth.

Let's take a look at how Chicago’s tech market stacks up against other major metros:

State of the Market

Chicago’s tech sector has a total workforce of 300,000 roles.
Tech jobs make up 7.2% of our overall workforce and there are over 10,000 tech companies in Chicago.
Chicago has the second-most favorable ratio of low living costs to high tech industry salaries in the nation.

Types of Roles

Chicago has 55,916 roles in software, programming, web development, and quality assurance, signaling a strong demand for developers and engineers.
Our city employs 22,854 IT support specialists and repair technicians.
There are 10,582 positions in Chicago focused on database, data science, analytics, and cybersecurity.

Wages in Chicago

The median tech salary in Chicago is $103,302, outpacing the city's median wages by 112%.
Millennials and Gen Z make up 61% of our tech sector.
Tech's earning potential shines through wage distribution in Chicago's various percentiles.

📊 Chart of the Week

Last week, Governor Pritzker unveiled a multiyear strategy to expand the Chicago quantum coalition.

This is supported by $1.1B in funding, including $600M in federal funding and a proposed $500M state investment for capital projects such as a quantum campus and cryogenic facility.