Much of Southern California and the Bay Area had their reported employment levels for 2024 revised downward after the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual benchmark revisions.
With these revisions, all but two of California’s major metros had job losses in the year-ending January 2025. In fact, six of the bottom 10 metros for job change were in the Golden State. California’s weaker employment situation comes at a time when new apartment supply is still peaking for this cycle..
Conversely, many of the same job change leaders from recent months remained in the top 10 list in January.
New York, Houston and Dallas returned as the top three jobs generators, and with Los Angeles falling off the list, Philadelphia moved into the #4 spot.
Orlando and Washington, DC added close to 32,000 jobs for the year to rank #5 and #6, while Miami, Chicago, Seattle and Atlanta added between 23,000 and 26,000 jobs to round out the top 10.
Note: RealPage’s list of market names do not yet reflect the new names utilized as of 2023 by the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and other data providers after the Office of Management and Budget’s revised delineations of Core Based Statistical Areas based on the 2020 Decennial Census.
Together, the top 10 markets added 438,800 jobs in the year-ending January, which was 22,000 more than the same 10 markets added last January. However, the next 10 markets (#11 to #20) of RealPage’s top job gain markets saw their total gains decrease 6.6% to total 190,500 new jobs.
Like last month, only New York exceeded 100,000 jobs gained for the year and only one gained between 50,000 and 99,999 jobs. Twenty of our top 150 markets reported annual job losses for the year, seven more than last month. In addition to the California markets mentioned, other major markets reporting annual job losses include Baltimore, Memphis, Tucson, St. Louis and Cincinnati.
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 cities dominate this list.
College Station, TX and Boise, ID comprised the top two markets for job change in the year-ending January, with a strong 4.5% in College Station and 3.6% growth in Boise. Salem, OR improved employment by 3% and Fayetteville, AR was close behind at 2.9%.
Three small Southern markets tied for #6 while Fresno, CA and Tacoma, WA tied at #9. Only four of last month’s top employment growth markets returned in December.
Outside of the top 10 growth markets, Lincoln, NE, Wilmington, DE, Salinas, CA and (despite its size) New York all had employment growth rates of 2.4%. Including the top 10, sixty markets exceeded the national not seasonally adjusted growth rate of 1.4%.
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.
