Revised Employment Figures Show Job Losses in Top 10 Markets
The US economy may be softer than previously thought as the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised its national seasonally adjusted employment figures downward, indicating employment levels were lower than originally estimated. Moderate revisions to metro-level unadjusted employment data further signal the pace of employment growth slowing, according to an analysis by RealPage.
The top 10 markets gained 604,800 jobs during the year ended in August, a 2.3% decrease from last month's employment growth. Of the top 10 metros, nine that led job gains in July remained in the top 10 for August. Plus, the largest eight remained in the same order.
The New York-White Plains metro division led the nation in employment gains with an annual increase of 139,000 new jobs as of August. That was about 20,000 fewer new jobs than the metro's July 12-month total gain, however.
Houston retained its second-place spot with a gain of 80,500 jobs through August, up 13,700 from July but down 19,000 from last year's gain. Los Angeles came in third, gaining 78,100 jobs for the year after losing jobs in August 2023.
The other markets in the Top 10 were Philadelphia, Phoenix, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Dallas, St. Louis and Miami. The next 10 markets saw their combined annual jobs increase by about 7,600 jobs.
While New York was the only metro that exceeded 100,000 jobs gained, four markets gained between 50,000 and 99,999 jobs. Of RealPage's top 150 markets, 12 reported annual job losses, including Chicago, Memphis, Denver and Milwaukee.
Smaller employment markets are more susceptible to fluctuations in growth rates, said RealPage. Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, moved into the No. 1 growth rate spot with a 4.7% employment change. That is considerably less than last month's top growth rate of 6% logged by College Station, Texas. Charleston, South Carolina, came in second with 4.3% growth, down 70 basis points from last month, and College Station dropped to No. 3 with 4% growth, down 200 bps from July.
The top 10 employment growth markets continue to reflect areas with concentrations in tourism (Las Vegas, Charleston, and Naples), state capitals (Lincoln, Tallahassee and Boise) and/or major universities (College Station, Champaign-Urbana and Fayetteville), said RealPage.
Source: GlobeSt/ALM