Southern Metros Dominate Top Job Gain List
The Census Bureau’s South region took five spots on the top 10 job gain list in October.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly report, Washington, DC and Charlotte jumped on to this month’s top 10 list, joining returning Houston, Dallas and Atlanta. New York and Philadelphia in the Northeast region and Los Angeles and Phoenix in the West returned as well. The Midwest’s Indianapolis metro returned but St. Louis and Riverside both dropped from the top 10.
Generally, employment gains are continuing to slow, with the sum of the top 10 metros’ gains down 12% from last month (460,900 jobs in October compared to 523,800 jobs in September).
The New York-White Plains metro division continues to be the top job creation market with 101,000 new jobs in the year-ending October. This was still the only metro with 100,000 plus jobs added.
Texas’ major metros of Houston (60,200 jobs gained) and Dallas (53,800 jobs gained) returned at #2 and #3, while Los Angeles (45,900 jobs gained) followed at #4. Phoenix nearly tied Los Angeles with a gain of 45,100 jobs through October and remained in the top five, while Philadelphia moved up a spot to #6 with 37,000 jobs created.
Newcomers Washington, DC and Charlotte had solid job gains of 32,900 and 29,300, respectively, as Atlanta (28,700 jobs gained) and Indianapolis (27,000 jobs gained) saw their annual employment gains slow by more than 6,000 jobs each.
As further evidence of a cooling jobs market, the next 10 markets (#11 through #20) of RealPage’s top job gain markets saw total gains drop 13.3% from their annual sum from September.
Only New York exceeded 100,000 jobs gained for the year and only two gained between 50,000 and 99,999 jobs, one less than last month. Thirteen of our top 150 markets reported annual job losses or no gain for the year, which was two more than last month. Major markets reporting annual job losses include Seattle (affected by the Boeing strike), Minneapolis-St. Paul, Milwaukee and Portland, OR.
Job Growth
Like annual job gains, the annual percentage change in employment saw continued slowing as none of the top 10 markets had percentage growth of 4% or greater in October. As usual, this list is dominated by smaller employment markets, which are more susceptible to fluctuations in growth rates. Half of this list is also populated with South region markets.
Stockton-Lodi, CA, Boise, ID and Charleston returned in the top three spots with growth of 3.4% to 3.9%. Returning markets College Station, TX and Lincoln, NE rounded out the top five with job growth close to 3%. Tulsa, OK and Lansing, MI tied for the #6 spot with growth of 2.5%, only 10 basis points (bps) ahead of three markets tied for #8 (Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL, Allentown, PA and Macon/Warner Robbins, GA).
Hurricane disruptions dropped three Florida markets off the top job growth list in October (Naples, Tallahassee and Gainesville).
Outside of the top growth markets, Indianapolis, San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Richmond and Charlotte had job growth rates of 2.2% or greater. Meanwhile, Akron, Des Moines, Columbus, OH and Dayton, OH joined the aforementioned major markets with declining employment through October. Asheville, NC’s 3% decline in employment is undoubtedly related to major flooding disruptions.
