Shifting labor market conditions have altered RealPage’s list of top 10 employment gain leaders, as several large metros that typically dominate the list have posted weak growth or outright job losses over the past year.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest data release, Las Vegas led the nation for job change in the year-ending February (latest available data). As the #1 market, Sin City’s 22,400 jobs gained pales in comparison to the number of jobs gained for previous #1 ranked markets in the recent past.
Typically, the #1 job gain market created about 50,000 to 60,000 new jobs after accounting for the recent annual benchmark revisions back to April. The #10 market gained around 20,000 to 25,000 jobs. In February, the #10 job gainer was San Diego with just 8,000 new jobs for the year.
In addition to Las Vegas, other markets not typically seen among the top job change markets in the country include Sacramento, Nassau County-Suffolk County (Long Island), Raleigh/Durham and Fresno.
Dallas and Austin continued to be among the top 10 performers, but Houston ranked #11, Phoenix fell to #19 and Los Angeles tumbled from #1 in January to #27 this month. Additionally, Washington, DC lost 119,000 jobs for the year-ending February and New York lost 57,500 jobs. Other larger markets losing jobs include Boston, Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, Tampa, Seattle and Miami.
A total of 77 of RealPage’s top 150 markets reported job losses for the year-ending February, which was 17 more than in January. In addition to the steep losses in Washington and New York, other significant job loss leaders for the year include Portland, OR, Boston, Baltimore and Detroit, with losses from 16,200 to 30,200 jobs.
At the end of February, the top 10 job creation markets summed to 127,900 new jobs compared to 144,900 jobs for the same 10 markets last year, which was a decrease of 17,000 new jobs. Compared to January, this month’s top 10 job creation markets added 28,400 fewer jobs, an 18.2% decrease.
The next 10 markets (#11 to #20) of RealPage’s top job gain markets created 62,600 new jobs for the year, which was 18,400 fewer jobs than the year before and 22,900 less than in January.
Job Growth
Unlike the top job gain markets, which tend to be large in population and employment, smaller markets usually dominate the top markets for annual percentage change in employment. As we typically see, state capitals, college towns and resort or tourist destination cities dominate this list. Six of January’s top job growth markets returned in February.
Atlantic City continued to lead the nation for employment growth in the year-ending February with a 3.7% increase, although that was down 80 basis points (bps) from January. Other hotspots for percentage gains in employment include Wilmington, NC, Reno and Stockton-Lodi with percentage gains between 2.2% and 3.1%.
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR, Fresno and job gain leader Las Vegas tied for #5 on February’s job growth list, while Myrtle Beach, Fort Collins and San Jose rounded out the top 10. Las Vegas and San Jose were the only two markets to appear on both the top job gains and top job growth lists.
Seven of the top 10 job growth markets had greater growth rates than one year ago, led by Fort Collins (420 bps increase) and Atlantic City (310 bps increase). Growth slowed from last year in Fayetteville and Myrtle Beach. Compared to January, only five of the top 10 had greater annual job growth, one was unchanged and four had about 55 bps decreases in their growth rates, on average.
Outside of the top 10 growth markets, Santa Rosa, CA, Provo, UT, Salem, OR and Bakersfield, CA comprised the next four markets with growth rates of 1.1% to 1.4%. Top 10 job gain markets Austin and Sacramento were in the top 20 for job growth percentages at 1% and 0.9%, respectively.
This post is part of a series by RealPage Senior Real Estate Economist Chuck Ehmann analyzing employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For more on this data, read previous posts on Job Growth.
