Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s Job Quality and Access Tool analyzes employment trends, industry clusters, job quality, and job accessibility (such educational required). Recent updates — including transit information, living-wage data, and customizable weighting factors — have made the tool more versatile for communities across northeastern Illinois. By weaving together workforce and job data through shared definitions and multiple metrics, the tool helps explain how the region’s major industry clusters are supporting — or failing to support — residents’ ability to access high quality jobs. It provides insight into what the data really means for residents and supports better planning and decision making for the region.
Katie Reigstad, AICP is a senior planner at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) and served as project manager for the recent update to the Job Quality and Access tool. She brings ten years of experience in community and economic development, with work ranging from corridor planning and tax increment financing to business improvement district planning in Illinois and Michigan. In metro Detroit, she also supported small business and entrepreneur growth. Katie holds a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Michigan.
The Data for Access and Opportunity summer webinar series is co-sponsored by the Center for Urban and Regional Analysis, the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, and the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.
