Technology jobs in the Chicago area are up, but that's not the whole story

CHICAGO - When Joe DeCosmo took over the analytics team at Chicago-based online lender Enova International four years ago, he was in charge of less than two dozen people. Now he looks through the glass wall of his office at more than 60 employees.

And analytics was only the second-fastest-growing team at Enova last year.

At tech companies like Enova and businesses outside the industry, the number of technology jobs in the Chicago region grew last year, albeit modestly. Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office routinely touts the added jobs in news releases and at public appearances, but tech workers aren't taking over the city just yet.

The Chicago metro area added more than 4,000 technology jobs in 2017, largely due to increasing demand for software developers and information security analysts, according to a report released this week by Downers Grove-based trade association CompTIA. That was an increase of 1.4 percent over the