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Earlier this year, the Brookings Institution released an expansive global report that tracks whether or not the world’s 300 largest metropolitan areas have recovered from the recession, and ranks each one’s growth. It’s an interesting set of data: China boasts 15 of the 20 best-performing metro areas, and the United States’ first appearance on the list is Austin, at 65th place. Though not all of the populations that we here at National Able Network (Able) serve live nearest these large metro areas, their economies have an enormous impact throughout our service area.

According to the Brookings monitor rankings, Chicago sits in 198th place and has not recovered. Other metros (like Boston, which we talked about previously) have done much better. But what does that mean for our clients? How does an economic recovery – or lack thereof – change what they face in their lives and in their search for employment?

This central question – how the economy impacts the career paths of Able clients – is something we keep our eyes on constantly. The movements of the economy affect how many people come through our doors, how many employers are able to hire, and even what occupations and career pathways are good targets. For many areas in Able’s service footprint, I’ve asked our on-the-ground expert staff to take a look at the metro-area recovery data and connect it to the experiences of our clients, but since our efforts in Chicago encompass so many different program models and client types, I’ve taken the liberty of highlighting those factors I think universally affect job seekers here.

The most important piece of data from this Brookings report is overall employment growth. More people enter the labor market each year as they graduate from college or high school. This means that a certain level of growth in the number of jobs nationwide is needed even to tread water in an economic sense – about 1.5 million jobs each year in recent years. Chicago’s labor force, about 3 percent of the country, needs 49,000 new jobs each year to keep pace.

Unfortunately, by the calculations of the Brookings Institute, the city has actually lost 92,000 jobs since the year 2000. Now, the city has gained 335,000 jobs since 2009 (or 67,000 each year), but total employment is lower now than it was in 2007 or in 2000. Luckily, our services are designed to give clients the edge they need to compete for scarce open jobs.

Through our efforts to help people find careers and move to growth industries, we work to make Chicago’s labor market healthier for both workers and businesses alike. Our mission is far from complete, both here in Chicago and across the country. Stay tuned for our next recovery series blog post where we will examine how economic recovery reaches – or doesn’t reach – our clients in other locations.