Dallas-Plano still leads the US in employment markets following calculations for 2023. (Separately, it also led the US in commercial real estate transactions last year, according to MSCI). Meanwhile, other cities in the top 10 job markets did some reshuffling as fundamentals changed in their regions.
A RealPage report showed that Dallas-Plano was the only market to add more thanDa 100,000 jobs in 2023 as it created 101,000. Los Angeles was next highest, adding 95,800 jobs.
New York, which was rated No. 2 in November, slipped to No. 7. Philadelphia remained in the #3 spot with 81,100 jobs added, down just 2,100 jobs from November.
Boston moved up three spots to No. 4, gaining 77,900 jobs in 2023, an improvement from both November and last December. Atlanta ticked up one spot to No. 5 with 72,000 jobs gained. Its annual total was 27,600 less than in 2022.
Houston slipped two spots to No. 6, gaining 70,100 jobs. Miami came in at No. 8 and Las Vegas joined the list at No. 9. Phoenix rounded out the top 10.
The overall total for the top 10 was down by 22,300 year-over-year. However, for the markets in places 11-20, they gained 12,800 overall.
In terms of employee percentage growth by market, the average employment percentage gain for the top 10 markets averaged 4.1% in December, equal to last month.
Charleston, SC, remained No. 1 at 6% and 10 basis points (bps) above last month’s rate. Las Vegas and Salinas, Calif., tied for second with 4.1% growth and are moving in different directions. Las Vegas jumped 30 bps for the month and Salinas fell 40 bps. Miami and Raleigh/Durham tied for fourth with the same growth rates as last month – 3.9%.
Major markets with employment declines are Denver and Detroit. Memphis was unchanged. Sub-1% growth markets include Milwaukee, Columbus, OH, Buffalo, Virginia Beach, Des Moines, Chicago, New York, Kansas City, and San Jose.
Sub-1.5% growth major markets include West Palm Beach, Washington, DC, Portland, and San Francisco.
The biggest movers outside of the top growth markets were Birmingham, Spokane, Akron, Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, and Baltimore. Each saw their job growth rates increase by 180 bps or more from last year.
On the other end, , the cities with the biggest declines were Midland/Odessa, Orlando, Wilmington, NC, Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., and Austin, which each fell by at least 350 bps from last year’s job growth.