March (and April’s) national rebound in employment was reflected in the annual employment gains by metro area. Although the national job gains reported recently are monthly seasonally-adjusted figures, the Bureau of Labor Statistics data for March employment by metropolitan area are not seasonally-adjusted but still indicate lingering resilience in the economy around the nation.
Many of March’s metro jobs leaders returned from February’s top 10 list but regional clustering is apparent. The top five markets for annual job gains in March include three of Texas’ major metro areas – Dallas, Houston and Austin. West region markets San Jose, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Diego are also among the top 10 markets. Additionally, Orlando, Charlotte and Raleigh/Durham represent the Southeast among the nation’s top markets for employment gains in the year-ending March.
Overall, the combined total of new jobs among these top 10 markets (166,000 jobs) was almost 50% greater than their combined annual gains in February and 13.3% greater than one year ago.
Another indication that metro job gains improved is the range of lowest to highest totals from #10 to #1 of 12,000 jobs in Raleigh/Durham up to 29,300 jobs in Dallas. Last month the range was from 8,000 jobs gained in San Diego to 22,400 new jobs in Las Vegas.
The next 10 markets of RealPage’s top job gain markets (#11 to #20) created 79,000 new jobs for the year, 6,500 more jobs than the year before and 41,200 more than in February. Among the top 10 markets, particularly strong improvement occurred from February’s job gain totals in Houston, Los Angeles and Orlando. Among the top 20, notable progress was seen in Atlanta, Fort Worth, Nashville, Baton Rouge, LA and Columbus, OH.
On the downside, the Northeast region is facing steep job cuts with 107,900 fewer jobs for the year in Washington, DC, and significant declines in New York, Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia. The Midwest region was not spared from declining employment levels as Detroit, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Toledo and Pittsburgh also reported job cuts for the year-ending March. Despite the improvement in job gains in several markets, a total of 79 of RealPage’s top 150 markets reported job losses for the year-ending March, two more than in February.
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. Nine of February’s top job growth markets returned in March, with the first three remaining in place.
Atlantic City continued to lead the nation for employment growth in the year-ending March with a 3.5% increase, although that was down 20 basis points (bps) from February. Other hotspots for percentage gains in employment include Wilmington, NC, Reno, NV and Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR with percentage gains between 2.2% and 2.5%.
Fort Collins-Loveland, CO and Fresno, CA tied for #5 on March’s job growth list with 2.1% growth, while San Jose ranked #7 with only a 1.6% percentage increase. Baton Rouge, LA and Las Vegas tied for #8 with 1.5% growth with Myrtle Beach right behind at 1.4%.
Eight of the top 10 job growth markets had greater growth rates than one year ago, led by Fort Collins (550 bps increase) and Atlantic City (280 bps increase). Growth slowed from last year in Fayetteville and Myrtle Beach. Compared to February, only five of the top 10 had greater annual job growth, one was unchanged and four had about 40 bps decreases in their growth rates, on average.
Outside of the top 10 growth markets, Santa Rosa, CA, Stockton-Lodi, CA and Provo, UT comprised the next three markets with growth rates of 1.2% to 1.4%. Other top 20 large markets in the 1% to 1.1% growth range included San Diego, Dallas, Raleigh/Durham and Austin.
