Chicago employers reported 1.18 million private-sector jobs for the year that ended in March 2017, a 16.6 percent jump since the depths of the Great Recession in 2010, according to preliminary data published by the Illinois Department of Employment Security. That exceeds the U.S. average of 15.7 percent private-sector job growth during that period. In suburban Cook County, meanwhile, jobs grew just 7.5 percent during those eight years.