Minneapolis Jumps Onto Top Job Gain Market List

A woman with curly hair and glasses sits at a desk, working on a laptop in a modern office setting.
Photo of Chuck Ehmann, Senior Real Estate Economist
by   Chuck Ehmann
  Posted   July 29, 2026
  in   Employment Data

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ June data release, the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI metro added 29,500 jobs in the year-ending June 2026, a turnaround of more than 23,000 jobs compared to May’s total and an improvement of more than 27,000 jobs from last year.

That was enough to place the Twin Cities area among the top 10 markets for job gains on RealPage’s top 150 list.

The quick recovery was primarily concentrated in the Professional/Business Services and Leisure/Hospitality industries, which flipped from annual losses in May to gains of about 2,700 new jobs each as of June as the impact of immigration enforcement activities waned.

Annual job gains also increased in the Education/Health Services, Manufacturing and Government sectors, while losses lessened in Trade/Transportation/Utilities and Other Services.

Seven of May’s top 10 job change markets returned from last month with New York continuing to lead the nation. Last month’s #2 – Las Vegas – fell to #5 this month as Houston and Dallas moved back up on the job gain list, followed by Los Angeles, which flipped from annual losses in May to 35,300 jobs gained for June.

Table listing top metro areas for job creation by rank and job change for June 2026.

Phoenix, Austin and Charlotte also returned to the top job change list from May. In addition to the return of Los Angeles and the addition of Minneapolis-St. Paul to the top 10 list, Salt Lake City edged in at #10 with 20,700 jobs gained for the year-ending June.

RealPage’s list of top 10 markets for job gains in June added a combined 345,000 jobs over the year, 163,700 more than the same group’s annual gains in May for an increase of nearly 90% as significant gains occurred in Los Angeles, New York, Minneapolis and Dallas. Compared to one year ago, these 10 markets added about twice the number of jobs as last June.

Additionally, the next 10 markets (#11 to #20) of RealPage’s top job gain markets saw their total gains jump more than 75% to 166,000 new jobs compared to May and almost triple the total from one year ago. Weak or negative annual job change in the South (Nashville and Atlanta) and West (San Francisco, San Diego and San Jose) last June hampered their total.

Heavy job losses continued in Washington, DC, Portland, OR and Indianapolis, while an additional 30 of RealPage’s top 150 markets reported job losses for the year. Job loss markets were primarily in the Midwest and South Atlantic regions.

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 May’s top job growth markets returned in June.

Last month’s top three returned as top three in June with Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Las Vegas and Myrtle Beach, SC tied at #1 with 2.9% employment growth. Fort Collins-Loveland, CO jumped from #10 to #4 in June with 2.5% growth, while Baton Rouge, LA moved up one spot to #5 with growth of 2.2%.  The next four top job growth markets were new to the list in June with Provo, UT, Austin, Salt Lake City and Raleigh/Durham each growing their employment bases by about 2% in the past year. Returning market Greenville/Spartanburg, SC dropped to the #10 spot with growth of 1.7%.  

Table showing top metro areas for job growth as of June 2026, highlighting leading locations and job change percentages.

The larger metros of Las Vegas, Austin and Salt Lake City each made both the top 10 job growth list, and the top 10 job change list in June, while #9 job growth market Raleigh/Durham just missed the top 10 for job change at #12.

Nine of the top 10 job growth markets had greater growth rates than one month ago, led by Fort Collins and Provo with 110 basis point (bps) gains. Las Vegas and Austin each jumped 80 bps from May’s growth and Salt Lake City and Myrtle Beach both improved by 60 bps. Greenville/Spartanburg was the only top 10 market with a slight reduction in growth (-10 bps).

Compared to last June, all top 10 growth markets improved their growth rates with two swinging from negative to positive (Fort Collins and Baton Rouge). Las Vegas and Myrtle Beach each had 200+ bps improvements to tie with Fayetteville for #1 and the remaining top markets averaged a 50-bps increase from last June’s growth rates.

Outside of the top 10 growth markets, seven markets (including Charlotte and Nashville) had employment growth rates of about 1.6%, followed by Minneapolis-St. Paul at 1.5% and five markets (including Orlando, Phoenix and San Jose) at 1.4% growth.

Job loss leaders Washington, DC and Portland, OR continued to have the deepest percentage decreases of 2.4% and 2.1%, respectively, but each improved about 70 bps from last month. Seventy markets met or exceeded the U.S. average growth rate of 0.5% (not seasonally adjusted).

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