Is Administrative & Office Support a Good Job Market in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN?

Executive Verdict

Market rating: competitive | Confidence: High

Chicago is still a real market for administrative and office support, not a dead one: Office and Administrative Support accounts for 11.4% of metro employment, and we observed more than 1,500 postings across more than 700 companies over the last 90 days.[26][7] But it is a harder market than headline volume suggests: metro unemployment was 5.3% in June 2026, Illinois administrative and office support postings were down 6.0% year over year in July, and most local openings skew entry-level and on-site.[17][8][1][2] Treat this as a replacement-hiring market with visible opportunity, but not an easy one.

Best positioned: Candidates with recent on-site admin experience who can handle customer-facing workflow, order processing, and computer-based coordination have the best odds, especially with larger employers.[2][5][3]

Main caution: Do not assume remote executive-assistant pay is typical; only about 5% of postings are remote, hourly openings often cluster around about $17 to $19/hour, and the bigger executive-assistant salary figures come from narrower sub-roles and salary guides.[2][27][28][29]

What Changed Recently

• Chicago metro unemployment reached 5.3% in June 2026, with the unemployment rate up 12.7660% year over year and the unemployment level up 10.7583%.[17][31]: That means more people are competing for office jobs at the same time, especially entry-level seats.
• Revelio Public Labor Statistics shows Illinois administrative and office support employment essentially flat year over year in July 2026, while active postings for the occupation were down 6.0%.[18][8]: This looks more like replacement hiring than expansion hiring.
• Chicago's minimum wage rose to $17.05/hour on July 1, 2026, and local hourly admin postings center on about $17 to $19/hour.[33][27]: At the low end, many hourly office jobs now sit close to the city's legal pay floor, so not every opening is a meaningful income upgrade.
• A WARN notice published July 31 shows SCR Medical Transportation plans 241 layoffs tied to a call-center contract loss, with the layoff period set for September 30, 2026.[30]: It is not a perfect proxy for core admin work, but it is a reminder that support-function jobs can move quickly when contracts change.
• Nationally, total nonfarm payrolls were up just 0.1993% year over year in July 2026, while the JOLTS openings rate was 4.4% and the hires rate was 3.4% in June.[15][19][20]: The U.S. market is still creating openings, but at a pace that rewards speed and strong fit more than broad resume spraying.

What This Means for You

Entry-Level Candidates

Difficulty: High unless you are open to on-site, customer-facing office work; about 80% of local postings are entry-level and about 90% are on-site.[1][2]

Best target: Large employers in food & beverage, retail, healthcare, and hospitality where admin work often blends reception, customer service, and order processing.[3][4][5]

Biggest mistake: Holding out for remote-only roles when remote is a small slice of the market.[2]

Next step: Build a one-page resume version for front-desk/admin work that foregrounds customer service, phone coverage, order processing, and computer literacy, then apply first to fresh local postings rather than older generic listings.[5][6]

Mid-Career Candidates

Difficulty: Moderate to high; there is a market, but it is tighter and more selective than the raw posting volume suggests.[7][8]

Best target: On-site executive support, office coordination, and contract admin roles at large brands and professional-services employers, including openings like Kraft Heinz and a Chicago tax-department contract role through INSPYR Solutions.[9][10][3]

Biggest mistake: Presenting yourself as a generalist when better-paying roles want visible stakeholder support, digital fluency, and polished coordination skills.[11][12]

Next step: Create a second resume version built around calendar support, meeting logistics, travel or expense support, document quality, and cross-functional follow-through.

Career Switchers

Difficulty: Moderate if you already have customer-facing experience; harder if you are coming in without office-system proof.[5][11]

Best target: Customer-facing admin openings and public-sector office support are the most realistic bridge points, because many postings that state education requirements ask for a high school diploma or equivalent, and Illinois still surfaces a dedicated Office & Administrative Support category on its state portal.[13][14]

Biggest mistake: Trying to switch into executive assistant roles first instead of proving reliability in front-office or coordinator work.

Next step: Build a short work-sample pack with a calendar invite set, meeting notes, a clean spreadsheet, and a sample email response workflow.

Salary Reality

stable pay slow advancement

Observed local pay is moderate: BLS puts administrative assistants in Chicago at $50,440 median, with a $42,260 to $62,970 25th-75th range, and the broader office-support group at $24.79 median hourly and $25.82 mean hourly.[34][26] Directional current-market signals are a bit wider: local postings center on about $55k to $71k for salaried roles and about $17 to $19/hour for hourly roles, while Revelio Public Labor Statistics puts mean offered pay on new Illinois openings at ~$51,776 (n=4,268).[35][27][36]

That says most Chicago office-support jobs are not low-wage by definition, but they also do not track the metro's overall private-pay pace; average hourly earnings for all private employees in the metro were $37.50 in March 2026.[37]

The main offsets are competition and job quality. The market is heavily entry-level and on-site, and Chicago's $17.05 minimum wage means many hourly office openings sit only modestly above the legal floor.[1][2][33][27]

Best-paying path: The strongest pay tends to sit in executive assistant and higher-skill office coordination work: Robert Half's Chicago executive-assistant guides show $70,250 and $87,813, and one Chicago office administration coordinator posting advertised $45-$60 per hour.[28][29][12]

Caution: Do not overread the top end. Those figures describe narrower executive-support or specialty coordination roles, while the broader occupation's current Illinois offered-pay signal is closer to ~$51,776 and standard Chicago administrative-assistant wages are lower.[36][34]

Where the Opportunities Are Concentrated

Real opportunity is concentrated less in classic downtown back-office roles than in high-volume service-heavy employers. We observed more than 1,500 postings across more than 700 companies in the last 90 days, with the biggest industry shares in food & beverage (about 35%), retail (about 15%), healthcare (about 15%), hospitality (about 10%), and education (about 5%).[7][4] That mix helps explain why local demand signals emphasize customer service, cash handling, order processing, computer literacy, and basic mathematics, not just pure executive support.[5] There is still a smaller higher-end lane for polished admin talent. Recent local examples include openings tied to One Medical, Kraft Heinz, Nordstrom, project44, Pantheon, and a Chicago tax-department contract role through INSPYR Solutions, plus a higher-paying office administration coordinator listing at $45-$60 per hour.[9][10][12] Those roles are better targets for mid-career candidates, but they are not the bulk of the market and usually reward on-site availability and stronger digital fluency.[2][11]

• Service-heavy front office and general admin (high): This is the largest lane, supported by food & beverage, retail, healthcare, and hospitality demand plus frequent requests for customer service and order processing skills.[4][5]
• Executive support and office coordination (moderate): This is a smaller but better-paying pocket, reflected in Chicago executive-assistant salary guides and higher-skill coordinator postings.[28][29][12]
• Contract and project-based clerical support (moderate): Professional-services demand shows up in temporary or department-specific assignments such as the Chicago tax-department admin contract posted by INSPYR Solutions.[10]

Where to focus: Aim first at large, on-site employers where you can match the actual workflow they need—either service-heavy front-office support or polished executive/coordination support—rather than chasing generic remote assistant titles.

Skills and Credentials Worth Pursuing

• Computer literacy (table stakes): Local postings mention computer literacy in about 15% of roles, making it a baseline screening item rather than a bonus skill.[5]
• Customer service (table stakes): Customer service appears in about 25% of local postings, and the strongest industry mix is food & beverage, retail, healthcare, and hospitality, so office roles often include live service work.[5][4]
• Order processing (differentiator): Order processing shows up in about 15% of local postings, which matters because many Chicago openings blend clerical coordination with day-to-day transaction flow.[5]
• Digital fluency (differentiator): Employers are explicitly valuing service excellence plus digital fluency, especially in executive assistant and office manager tracks.[11]
• Cash handling (differentiator): Cash handling appears in about 20% of local postings, a reminder that many 'admin' roles here sit in customer-facing or site-based settings rather than pure corporate support.[5][4]
• Basic mathematics (table stakes): Basic mathematics is requested in about 15% of local postings, especially where the role touches orders, payments, or simple reconciliation.[5]
• Role-specific certifications only when requested (differentiator): The most common named certification in local postings appears in less than 5% of the sample, which suggests certifications are usually not the main hiring lever in this market.[23]

Adjacent Roles to Consider

• Customer Support Specialist (both): Administrative and customer support talent overlaps heavily, and employers are looking for service excellence plus digital fluency.[11]
• Administrative Project Manager / Project Coordinator (pivot): Administrative project managers were identified as one of the admin/customer-support roles with salary growth in 2026.[11]
• Office Services / Operations Coordinator (both): Chicago still shows live office-management and office-administration coordinator openings, including a coordinator role advertised at $45-$60 per hour.[32][12]
• Government Program Assistant (bridge): Illinois continues to surface a dedicated Office & Administrative Support category on its state portal, making government support roles a viable nearby lane for Chicago candidates.[14]

30 / 60 / 90-Day Plan

First 30 Days

• Split your resume into two versions: one for service-heavy front-office/admin roles and one for executive-support or coordinator roles.
• Map a realistic on-site commute radius before you apply, because most openings in this market are not remote.
• Build a short proof pack with a meeting agenda, clean spreadsheet, formatted memo, and sample follow-up email thread.
• Target large employers first, then layer in state and public-sector applications where the process is slower but steadier.

Days 31-60

• Add contract and temp-to-perm channels to your search, especially for professional-services departments and short-term coverage roles.
• Track which version of your resume gets interviews, then narrow your applications toward either service-heavy admin or higher-skill coordination work.
• Practice interview stories around calendar rescue, deadline follow-up, customer escalation handling, and document accuracy.
• If your background is retail or hospitality, explicitly translate it into office language such as front-desk coverage, transaction accuracy, scheduling, and workflow support.

Days 61-90

• If interviews are thin, pivot deliberately into adjacent roles such as customer support, office services coordination, or project coordination instead of repeating the same admin search.
• Broaden employer type, not just title: add education, healthcare front office, hospitality offices, and state or local government support roles.
• Ask staffing firms and hiring managers about temp, contract, and leave-coverage openings that can convert into permanent roles.
• Use your application history to cut low-return targets, especially remote-only assistant roles that attract oversized competition.

Methodology and Confidence

This July 2026 report was generated on August 10, 2026. Latest direct national data: August 2026. Latest direct Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN data: July 2026.

Confidence: Overall confidence: High. Based on 13 direct local occupation data points and 21 total local evidence items with recent coverage.

Limitations

• Local wage anchors are strong, but the most specific Chicago occupation pay figures available here come from May 2025, so they lag current July 2026 conditions.
• Recent Chicago unemployment readings are newer, but the June 2026 year-over-year changes are preliminary and may be revised.
• Statewide labor data was used as a proxy where metro-level monthly occupation hiring measures are not published, so Illinois direction may not match Chicago exactly.
• The Callings.ai job database is a partial, deduplicated sample of online postings, which makes direction of demand, leading employer names, work-arrangement patterns, and skill themes more reliable than exact counts or precise market shares.
• This category is broad, and in Chicago the posting mix leans toward service-heavy employers, so signals such as cash handling or food preparation reflect customer-facing office support roles more than classic executive-assistant work.

References

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Live Openings in This Market

This report is published monthly; its companion page tracks the active Administrative & Office Support openings in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN from the live Callings.ai job index. Browse current Administrative & Office Support openings in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN.