Of the 150 largest U.S. apartment markets tracked by RealPage Market Analytics, only Jackson, MS was seeing annual job cuts as of December. The capital – and the most populous city – in Mississippi lost 700 jobs in the year-ending December 2022, which pulled the local employment base down by 0.3%. While most markets across the U.S. are seeing slow employment growth, Jackson lingers in negative territory. The job sectors that cut the most jobs during the past year were Education and Health Services (-1,800 jobs), Professional and Business Services (-1,100 jobs) and Leisure and Hospitality Services (-1,000 positions). The biggest job sectors here – Trade, Transportation and Utilities and Government – also saw jobs cuts in the year-ending December, but the losses were smaller (-700 jobs and -400 jobs, respectively). In the decade leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, annual job growth in Jackson was minimal, averaging about 1,900 new positions or 0.7% each year. The economic downturn during the worst of the pandemic resulted in job cuts bottoming out at -37,000 positions annually in April 2020. During the economic comeback that followed, annual job growth peaked at 24,700 jobs in April 2021. While it looked like job growth had returned to pre-pandemic levels in late 2021 and early 2022, this market has been struggling to hold onto job growth since.
