SOUTH CHICAGO — South Chicago teenager Silvestre Luna wants what so many young people plan for: a job he likes, good pay and opportunities to grow in his career.

He hasn’t had it easy. After losing his little brother around Halloween 2023, he dropped out of high school.

“I was in a dark place,” the 19-year-old recalled. “I didn’t want to come out of the house.”

Now, he’s studying to pass his GED so he can find a job that can pay more than $30 an hour and maybe save up to go to college to study engineering.

But there aren’t many opportunities like that in his South Chicago neighborhood, where steel manufacturing once made the community a bustling commercial center. Its decline, starting in the 1970s , emptied out the local economy. Today, local residents say competition to get a fast food or retail job paying $16-$20 an hour can be steep.

A quantum computing development scheduled to break ground this year at a former steel manufacturing site promises to bring tens of thousands of good paying jobs to Luna’s community in the next decade. The state is investing $500 million in the development. But not all Luna’s neighbors are convinced they will benefit.

Despite some promise of economic revival for South Chicago, an Illinois Answers Project evaluation of the fledgling quantum industry found that opportunities for jobs for high school graduates in the industry are limited, a reality that’s mismatched with the jobs needed in South Chicago, where the majority of people have less than a bachelor’s degree and work in health care and retail for an annual income of about $23,000.

But accessible jobs could see major growth if the quantum computing industry, which is the focus of the park, progresses from research and development into commercial use.

What The Quantum Park Could Do For South Chicago

Business and political leaders say the plan is for The Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park — a hub where startups and tech giants alike will try to make revolutionary leaps in computing and other quantum technology — to become an economic engine that will revive the economically struggling South Chicago.

“I want this to look like what U.S. Steel was — a massive engine for employment,” Related Midwest President Curt Bailey said during a November planning commission meeting on the project.

Community members hope it could mean better roads and transit options, renovations for schools and more educational programming, fewer young people will get trapped in a cycle of violence and more will graduate into a community with opportunities.

But not everyone believes it.

Quantum computing is still being brought out of science labs into commercial development, an end goal that some physicists and computer scientists say may be impossible. And community members worry that if they don’t qualify for the good paying jobs, they won’t be able to afford to live in their neighborhoods after new high tech businesses and the talent they actually hire moves in.

Explainer: What is quantum computing?

“These are cutting edge technology companies that are looking, maybe nationally or maybe globally for talent. What’s the hope in them hiring from the same zip code?” said South Chicago resident Sam Corona, 44, whose father worked at Wisconsin Steel for a year before it shut down in 1980 .

Businesses and project managers for the site have yet to commit to hiring a percentage of employees from the community and the city has yet to commit to anti-displacement policies and did not respond to questions about such policies by publication day. But developers and quantum park administrators say that there will be accessible jobs supporting the quantum industry development, such as human resources, technician and construction work.

What exactly is a quantum hub?

Luna is unsure of what to make of quantum computing.

“I’m not good with numbers or reading,” he said.

But he knows this: “I want more for myself,” he said.

He’s one of dozens of Peacekeepers — a group of young people paid a stipend of about $100 a day through a South Chicago nonprofit group to build community and de-escalate conflict — regularly in attendance at the community meetings hosted by neighborhood organizations to learn about the project and the promise that it would improve their lives.

Some of them are happy to see more opportunities in their community. Others struggle to see how they fit into the picture but are hoping for the best: that it would lead to a job where they can make anywhere from $20 to $50 per hour so they can save money, help their families and maybe one day own a business or house.

So what is quantum computing? It’s technology that uses what scientists understand about particles at a very small scale to process information in ways that classical computers can’t.

“If [quantum computing] was a book, despite it being around for so long, we’re barely in chapter one, and that’s an exciting piece, because there’s so much room to go,” said Alex Mack, a spokesperson for PSiQuantum, a company that aims to build the first commercially useful quantum computer.

The project, which was developed by Related Midwest and has attracted businesses like PsiQuantum and IBM, will span 128 acres across the South Works site during its first phase, with the broader 440-acre plan to be developed afterward.

Computing is just one part of the emerging field of quantum technology. The industry also includes making secure data and communication encryption technology as well as the next generation of sensors.

The development will also have research, lab and cryogenics facilities to support work by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the University of Illinois, the University of Chicago and other other higher education institutions.

Park developers and representatives have stressed that there will be 20,000 construction jobs in the next six years as well as non-computing jobs drawn into the site by investments, such as Advocate Health’s plans to build a 52-bed hospital as part of the broader development.

They have also promised that training and educational programs will help funnel young people into some of the lucrative jobs in computing.

Who Are The Jobs For?

Meera Raja, who works at the Chicago tech nonprofit P33, said her organization and others are designing courses to teach software programming to help young people who may not be able to get a college degree in the field.

During a community meeting at Bowen High School in December, P33 representatives working with the quantum park told residents that college degrees may not be necessary for some software jobs at the park.

That claim was met with doubts among some in the audience.

But how many software engineers don’t have degrees, and how many of them come out of Black and Brown communities in Chicago’s South Side, residents in the audience wondered.

The data supports their skepticism. Fewer than 3% of software developers have a high school diploma or less, while nearly 90% have a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The industry is also overwhelmingly white, 54.2%, and Asian, 36.8%, according to federal data, compared to the majority Black and Latino population in South Chicago .

The numbers are similar for computer and electrical engineers.

Quantum company job postings and interviews with industry watchers reveal some 65 quantum companies operating in the U.S. are looking for software engineers, electrical engineers, physicists, computer scientists and programmers, according to an Illinois Answers Project analysis of a job board on the Quantum Consortium website in late November. Science, Technology, Engineering and Math jobs accounted for about three-fourths of the wanted ads with many featuring six-figure salaries.

Companies also needed professional services: sales, marketing and human resources. Those accounted for about one in five jobs.

The rest, a small sliver of the postings, were production and technician jobs which required that applicants have high school and associate’s degrees. The pay ranged from about $30 an hour to more than $50 an hour for more experienced employees.

Unlike the familiar manufacturing assembly line, production work in quantum technology involves making small electronic parts in clean laboratories, as contamination can make the technology malfunction.

Technician workers will typically receive some on-the-job-training to have some understanding of quantum environments and equipment.

The quantum industry as a whole is still in its infancy and is still pivoting from employing advanced scientists to a broader workforce.

Cutting edge industries often start with a concentration of advanced researchers, like PhD researchers, and slowly, over decades, become more accessible to people with less advanced degrees, like Master’s, then Bachelor’s and eventually high school graduates and associates degree holders, said Kate Timmerman, who runs Chicago Quantum Exchange.

“We are at the very early stages of that,” she said.

PsiQuantum says it expects the approximately 150 jobs at the site to be about a third S.T.E.M and research and development, a third technicians and operations and a third other professional and supporting roles.

It’s hard to say exactly how many jobs, and what type, will be at the quantum hub because the park is still recruiting companies.

The park is in negotiations over terms and incentives with roughly seven companies to join the park and has been in talks with several dozen businesses interested in operating at the site, said Harley Johnson, the CEO of the park, during a December meeting of the IQMP Board of Managers. These businesses range from startups to Fortune 500 companies in quantum computing and microelectronic suppliers.

The community wants the park developers to keep the residents of South Chicago in mind when they’re building out the businesses.

Forget about the science jobs, some residents attending community meetings about the development have said. What are the jobs that high school graduates can do?

Maybe HVAC maintenance, said Amanda Diaz, who manages education and youth development for the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corp.

It’s important to provide students who graduate high school with good paying job opportunities, she said.

“You lose them if you don’t have work options right after high school,” said Diaz.

That message is getting through to the park’s Board of Managers, a group of academics and business leaders in charge of making decisions for the development of the site.

During a December meeting of the Park’s Board of Managers, some pointed out the need to have microelectronic manufacturing plants, not just quantum computing jobs, so that the site will have more jobs accessible to people of all skills and educational levels.

Microelectronics, an industry of some 400,000 workers across the country, are used in everything from laptops to cell phones and televisions and offer good paying jobs to its technicians and engineers. The production roles pay on average $30 an hour, according to the BLS.

Hopes and Promises

Celia Colón, the CEO and founder of Giving Others Dreams which runs the Peacekeeper program, believes that the massive economic development of the quantum hub could deliver job opportunities that could reduce the violence in her neighborhood.

“If you’ve got somebody making $80,000 to $100,000 a year, they’re not thinking of harming anybody. They’re thinking about their next trip they’re taking, the next steak they’re eating and what investments they’re going to buy, right?,” Colón said. “They start living in a different level of economic opportunity.”

That’s something she knows first hand. When Colón was younger, she went to prison for assault and robbery convictions. She’s also been a victim.

After her sister was killed in 2020, Colón remembers the funeral home workers threw her sister’s bloody clothes in the trunk of her car. Yet another sign, she said that her South Chicago community has gotten too comfortable with and callous to the violence that has plagued the area .

Colón is working with Claretian Associates, a South Chicago community development corporation and other organizations, to map out what community benefits could look like.

She’s told the CEOs and quantum hub board of managers that this project can change the community, but the people who have lived here for generations have to be involved.

Unlike the more skeptical members of her community, Colón takes the Board’s promises about workforce development and public benefit seriously.

But others want more than assurances about the quantum experiment. They want written commitments and solid plans about job training programs and jobs for the community.

“Enough of the promises,” said Amalia NietoGomez, the director of the Alliance of the Southeast, “If you’re going to say you’re going to offer an education pipeline, don’t just leave it at that. Let’s hammer out the details.”

Is There A Future For Quantum Computing?

The hype and excitement around quantum computing has some industry watchers projecting the industry will grow into an industry worth billions of dollars, or even $1 trillion. Chicago Quantum Exchange commissioned an analysis in 2024 that concluded the economic impact of quantum technology could reach $80 billion in the Illinois-Wisconsin-Indiana region by 2035.

But it’s not a sure thing.

Allison Brown, a Chicago activist, shared her skepticism about the quantum computing industry during the December community meeting at Bowen High School where park officials explained the community benefits of the project.

“We can tell that [quantum computing] works, but the experimental process is whether it’s able to scale,” she told Illinois Answers. “And whether it’s something that can be used for all the other stuff they’re talking about, like pharmaceuticals and energy development.”

She pointed out that DARPA, the research wing of the country’s Department of Defense shares her hesitation. DARPA is setting up labs and research space at the quantum site to explore if “quantum computing will grow from a primarily scientific endeavor to a critical industrial tool.”

Among the questions federal officials seek to answer: what can a quantum computer do that a standard computer cannot? Is it even possible for PsiQuantum to build the first industrial quantum computer?

“Our opening position is skepticism,” Dr. Joe Altepeter, the DARPA program manager leading this exploration, said in a news release.

While some in the quantum industry, like PsiQuantum, see quantum computing becoming a commercial tool in years, others say we’re nowhere near that point, if it is on the horizon at all. So far, quantum computers can only solve the same problems that classical computers can.

“Quantum computing is a fascinating scientific topic,” said Meta AI Chief Yann Lecun, who is also a physicist and computer scientist, at a company event in late 2023 . But he raised questions about “the practical relevance and the possibility of actually fabricating quantum computers that are actually useful.”

The Potential Pitfalls

Lifelong South Chicago resident Sherman Morisette grew up so close to South Works that he saw the crowds of workers filing in and out of the factory during shift change.

At 74, he’s seen the community during its reign as one of Chicago’s economic centers, a time when his father, a TV repairman and mailman, supported his family of eight on his income.

“You name it, we had it,” he said. “Goldblatt’s [a department store], meat markets, Marshall Fields [another department store], Sears, a big Christmas tree for the kids and families, five banks — that many right here — and a lot of mom and pop shops.”

As the information economy replaced the industrial one, the wage gap grew along with the cost of basic needs. The wealthier, whiter northern part of the city grew richer and the more working class, mostly Black southern part of the city struggled more and more.

Morisette now lives in senior housing, still right by South Works. He and his neighbors remember the heartbreak of watching the community they love slowly crumble over time. Shops closing. People moving out. Trust between neighbors thinning out along with resources.

While he knows his community needs a major job center, a quantum site isn’t the same as steel, he said.

“Let’s be real,” he said. The workforce for such a site isn’t in South Chicago.

And he’s worried that if the site thrives, it won’t bring back a vibrant Black community.

“They could get squeezed out,” he said. And then what would his community look like?

“Well, the North Side,” he said, referring to where most of the city’s white residents live.

For many residents, the fear of getting left out of the job opportunities is part of a bigger fear of being pushed out of their neighborhoods by a higher earning and more educated population.

Vacant lots are being scooped up by one of the biggest developers in Chicago, Related Midwest, which plans to develop some 40 units of housing in South Chicago. Upgrades are taking place on Commercial Avenue. Neighbors have said they are starting to get visits and calls from real estate investors whom they suspect want to buy cheap in anticipation of rising housing value.

Many residents don’t want to stop development but rather they want to see policies like property tax freezes and an agreement on local hiring that prevent rising costs from pushing people out.

Displacement in neighborhoods like Pilsen and Humboldt Park has ignited fear of development in other parts of the city.

“With Humboldt Park and Pilsen, those are prime examples of major public infrastructure improvement projects coming in the neighborhood, the city agency being fully aware that this would eventually cause a problem and not doing anything about it, and now it’s too late,” said April Jackson, an associate professor in the Department of Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

A decade before the community meetings to discuss what South Chicago wants from the quantum development, community organizations and residents got together to map out a community benefits agreement applicable to any development project. The agreement, published in 2017 , calls for hiring within certain zip codes, especially in communities that have been historically excluded from these opportunities, and keeping a portion of the housing at a price that’s affordable to people making the median income.

“We’re talking about families that have been there for two to three generations … We’re talking about the community that literally built downtown, the steel making community,” said NietoGomez, the Alliance of the Southeast director. “We wanted it to be successful, but we wanted [it] to be successful for the community, and so that’s what it would take.”

This article first appeared on Illinois Answers Project and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.