New York-White Plains/Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie, NY is usually one of if not the top job gain market in the nation each month, but in September, New York fell from its #1 spot in August to #5 among Realpage’s top 10 metros for employment gains, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
New York’s September gain of 24,100 new jobs was less than half of August’s revised annual gain of 55,400 jobs gained. The primary culprit was a loss of 16,300 jobs in the Leisure and Hospitality industry, although modest losses continued in the Information, Construction, and Trade/Transportation/Utilities industries. Weaker growth was also reported in the Education/Health Services and Professional/Business Services groups.
As in most markets, New York’s employment in the food services and drinking places subsector of the Leisure and Hospitality supersector exhibits seasonality throughout the year with peak employment in summer months and holiday periods. New York typically experiences a small seasonal dip in August with a slight uptick in September. That didn’t happen this year as this subsector’s employment fell by almost 10,000 jobs from August to September. Removing seasonality by comparing it to last year, food service and drinking place employment dropped by almost 20,000 jobs.
New York’s tumble from the top of the job gain list moved several markets further up in September, landing Houston and Dallas as the top two with 33,600 and 29,700 jobs gained, respectively. Charlotte and Salt Lake City each jumped five spots with employment gain totals between 24,000 and 25,000 jobs.
Phoenix remained in the #6 spot with a 23,600-job gain followed by Minneapolis-St. Paul and Raleigh/Durham. Los Angeles also tumbled down the top 10 list to land at #9 (from #3 in August) with the September job gain total of 20,300 jobs down by 8,100 jobs from August’s revised total. Las Vegas moved onto this month’s top 10 list, gaining almost the same number of jobs as Los Angeles, replacing Philadelphia, which fell to #16.
Metro-level job gains for September’s top 10 markets totaled 244,600 new jobs, an improvement of 155,800 jobs from last September or an increase of about 176%. Compared to last month, the top 10 market’s total gains fell 43,900 jobs or 15.2%. The next 10 markets (#11 to #20) of Realpage’s top job gain markets saw their total gains increase 106,700 jobs compared to last September to 156,200 new jobs, but they decreased 6,700 jobs from August.
Job losses continued but improved slightly in Washington, DC, Portland, OR, Indianapolis and Atlantic City, but losses steepened in Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Newark. A total of 32 of Realpage’s top 150 markets reported job losses for the year, eight less than last month. Job loss markets continue to be concentrated 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. Seven of August’s top job growth markets returned in September.
Myrtle Beach, SC and Baton Rouge, LA returned as the top two markets for job growth, although Myrtle Beach improved 40 basis points (bps) from last month while Baton Rouge dropped 50 bps. Greenville-Spartanburg, SC jumped to the #3 spot with 2.4% growth, followed closely by Huntsville, AL with 2.3% growth, an improvement of four spots on the list from August.
Charleston rejoined the top 10 list, tying returning markets Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR and Salt Lake City for the #5 spot. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL also made this month’s top job growth markets with Midland/Odessa and Fresno all at close to 2% growth to round out the top 10.
Compared to one year ago, Baton Rouge, Cape Coral-Fort Myers and Fresno saw their employment growth decrease, while the largest improvements were seen in Fayetteville, Huntsville and Charleston.
Eight markets improved their job growth figures from last month. Month-over-month increases were greatest in Cape Coral-Fort Myers and Fresno, averaging 135 bps. With the remaining six markets averaging a 48-bps gain. Baton Rouge and Fayetteville retrenched slightly from their August annual growth.
Outside of the top 10 growth markets, Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte, Fort Collins-Loveland, CO and Provo-Oram-Lehi, UT were the only markets with an employment growth rate of 1.8% or greater, followed by three markets at 1.7% (including Las Vegas and San Jose) and only one market at 1.6% growth (Naples-Marco Island, FL).
Washington, DC saw the deepest loss at 1.8% (though that was an improvement of 20 bps from last month), while job losses of 1% or greater occurred in Richmond, VA, Lansing-East Lansing, MI and Macon/Warner Robins, GA. Eighty-three markets met or exceeded the U.S. average growth rate of 0.5% (not seasonally adjusted), eight fewer than last month.
This post is part of a series analyzing employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For more on this data, read previous posts on Job Growth.
