Employment increased in 299 of 346 largest counties for year ending March 2017

From March 2016 to March 2017, employment increased in 299 of the 346 counties with 75,000 or more jobs. Among these large counties, York, South Carolina, had the largest over-the-year percentage increase (+6.8 percent), followed by Davis, Utah (+4.9 percent); and Williamson, Tennessee (+4.6 percent). The national job growth rate was 1.6 percent over the same period.

Employment declined in 39 of the largest counties over the year ending March 2017. Kanawha, West Virginia, had the largest over-the-year percentage decrease in employment among the largest counties (–2.7 percent), followed by Lafayette, Louisiana (–2.3 percent), Anchorage, Alaska (–1.7 percent), and Oklahoma County, Oklahoma (–1.5 percent).

Total U.S. employment was 142.3 million in March 2017, an over-the-year increase of 2.2 million jobs. The 346 U.S. counties with 75,000 or more jobs accounted for 72.8 percent of total U.S. employment in March 2017. These 346 counties had a net job growth of 1.7 million over the year, accounting for 76.1 percent of the overall U.S. employment increase over that period. The 5 counties with the largest increases in employment levels had a combined over-the-year employment gain of 219,100 jobs, which was 10.0 percent of the overall job increase for the United States.

These data are from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages program. To learn more, see “County Employment and Wages: First Quarter 2017” (HTML) (PDF). Data are preliminary.