City ProfileChicago · Illinois · US

Chicago

Chicago hiring activity from Hacker News "Who's Hiring" threads. Located in Illinois.

Postings · May 2026+25%3-mo momentum
17
postings
this month
12-Mo Trend · 3-mo rollingJun '25 → May '26
4 low3-mo avg · 711.3333 high
Rank · US
#5of 30 US cities
Remote-friendly · This month
94%+21 pts vs US
Share of US postings
3.7%17 of 518
3-Mo momentum
Rising+25% vs prior 3 mo
§ 00Hiring Volume

Climbed faster than the US baseline since the 2025 trough.

Annual totals for the last five years — every year shown is complete except 2026, hatched because it is still in progress.

Full yearPartial yearAll-time peak
All-time postings
5,676since 2011 · 182 months
−14% YoY2025 vs 2024
469
'22
176
'23
135
'24
116
'25
39
'26
All-time total
5,676182 months
↑ Best year
2016736
↓ Worst full year
201285
Latest full year
2025−14% YoY
§ 01Compensation

Pays 8% under Seattle for senior eng — and 5% over Austin.

Median bands from the 19 Chicago postings that disclosed USD pay across 2023–Present.

Senior eng · median · 2023–Present
USD169K
−8%vs Seattle+5%vs Austin
Range by seniority · 2023–Present
Junior— n=2
Senior$148k – $188k n=10
Staff+— n=3

Bar = p25 to p75 · tick on Senior = median. Junior & Staff+ shown hatched below the 10-sample floor.

Senior eng median · US peer cities · 2023–Present
Where Chicago sits in the US distribution
CityMedianvs Chicago
01
Seattle
$183k+8.2%
02
Atlanta
$183k+8.2%
03
Washington DC
$180k+6.7%
04
Chicagoyou are here
$169k—
05
Boston
$167k−0.9%
06
Austin
$160k−5.2%
07
Denver
$160k−5.2%

2023–Present disclosed pay only

§ 02Work Model

5 points more remote-friendly than the US baseline.

Trailing-12-month split, plus the yearly remote / hybrid / onsite mix all the way back.

Remote-friendly · Trailing 12 months
76%
+5 ptsvs US · 71%
Remote
38%
Hybrid
39%
Onsite-only
24%
Work-model mix · by year
Remote share is climbing back in '26
RemoteHybridOnsite
'11
65% rem.
'12
59% rem.
'13
75% rem.
'14
71% rem.
'15
31% rem.
'16
42% rem.
'17
47% rem.
'18
33% rem.
'19
39% rem.
'20
69% rem.
'21
92% rem.
'22
90% rem.
'23
74% rem.
'24
84% rem.
'25
74% rem.
'26
92% rem.
Trailing 12 months · Chicago vs US
Chicago76% remote-friendly
US average71% remote-friendly
§ 03City Signature

Python tops Chicago's skill mentions over the last 12 months.

Keywords counted across 95 Chicago hiring posts. Posts frequently list multiple skills.

#01
Top SkillPython
26mentions↓ 16%
Mentions · Last 12 Months
JUN '2527% of postingsMAY '26
Leaderboardlast 12 mo
01Python−16%26
02Rust+216%25
03Amazon Web Services (AWS)+68%21
04PostgreSQL−5%20
05React−28%20
06Linux (non-WSL)+110%18
07TypeScript−38%16
08Go+34%15
09Apache Kafka+734%11
10Kubernetes+28%11
Movers · 12-month change
What’s moving
Trending↗
  • 01PyTorch+1567%
  • 02Java+961%
  • 03Apache Kafka+734%
  • 04Google Cloud+658%
Cooling↘
  • 01Machine Learning−49%
  • 02Docker−49%
  • 03Ruby on Rails−44%
  • 04Terraform−44%

85% of jobs include at least one technical skill · share of postings mentioning the skill (12 months through May 2026)

Role mix · Chicago vs USShare of postings by role category, past 3 years
ChicagoUS baseline
Data Ml
match
14%
12%
+1 pts1.1×
Design
match
4%
3%
+2 pts1.6×
Engineering
match
68%
69%
−2 pts1.0×
Executive
match
2%
2%
+0 pts1.1×
Finance Accounting
match
1%
0%
+1 pts4.6×
Healthcare
match
0%
0%
0 pts0.0×
Legal Compliance
match
0%
0%
−0 pts0.0×
Marketing
match
2%
3%
−1 pts0.7×
Operations
match
0%
1%
−1 pts0.3×
Other
match
2%
3%
−1 pts0.6×
Product
match
7%
4%
+2 pts1.5×
Sales
match
1%
3%
−2 pts0.3×