Salt Lake City is still the nation’s only major apartment market to have fully recovered all the jobs lost during the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, but a handful of other markets are very close. As of July, Salt Lake City’s job base is 2.5% ahead of pre-pandemic levels, according to the latest data release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This market’s job count is now 25,800 positions above the February 2020 employment base, before the recession took its toll. While a lot of smaller markets are also completely recovered (Salisbury, MD the best among them, with a job base that is 10.7% ahead of pre-pandemic norms), the nation’s largest 50 apartment markets are mostly still trying to get back to previously solid levels. Some markets are very close, with a job base less than 1% away from pre-pandemic levels. Austin’s July job count is so close, only lacking by 300 jobs. Kansas City and Jacksonville still have to fill about 3,000 to 5,000 jobs to get back to February 2020 levels, while the bigger markets – Dallas and Denver – still have about 11,000 to 14,000 jobs to make up before full recovery.
