Jobs are everything to the economy. Period. Good news is that in the past 12-months the U.S. has added 2.635 million net new jobs. And these are good jobs with more than not having pay levels greater than the national median.
Within the 413 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and Divisions, 346 (83.8 percent) created positive job growth for the 12-months ending September 2014, eight remained flat (1.9 percent) and 59 lost jobs (14.3 percent). Some markets are literally hot. Others continue to hemorrhage.
So where are the hottest jobs markets in the country? Following are the top 20 job growth MSAs and divisions based on percentage growth. In comparison, recall that the national job growth rate for this period was 1.93 percent. While the obvious oil and gas markets are hot, so are the manufacturing cities in Indiana. Just two markets having a million or more jobs are included in this list: Houston and Dallas.
In full reporting, the next table details the 20 MSAs and divisions with the greatest percentage decline in jobs.
These rankings change, however, when viewed from the greatest number of net new jobs.
The 20 markets losing the most jobs in the past 20-months are shown in the following table.
Both gains and losses in jobs are diverse across the geographic landscape.
To examine any specific MSA for jobs data, unemployment information, inflation and prices, and pay and benefits click http://www.bls.gov/data/
Jobs are everything – especially for real estate.
Ted