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Employment increased in 283 of 346 largest counties for year ending September 2017

March 12, 2018

From September 2016 to September 2017, employment increased in 283 of the 346 counties with 75,000 or more jobs. Among these large counties, Midland, Texas, had the largest over-the-year percentage increase in employment (+10.4 percent), while Collier, Florida, had the largest percentage decrease in employment (–5.2 percent). The national job growth rate over the same period was 1.0 percent.

12-month percent change in employment, large U.S. counties, September 2017
County Percent change

Midland, TX

10.4%

Elkhart, IN

5.2

Weld, CO

5.0

Clark, WA

4.6

Calcasieu, LA

4.5

Rutherford, TN

4.3

Utah, UT

4.2

Montgomery, TX

4.0

Benton, WA

3.8

Kings, NY

3.7

In September 2017, national employment was 144.5 million, an increase of 1.5 million jobs over the year. The 346 U.S. counties with 75,000 or more jobs accounted for 72.7 percent of total U.S. employment. These 346 counties had a net job growth of 1.1 million over the year, accounting for 77.3 percent of the overall U.S. employment increase. The 5 counties with the largest increases in employment levels had a combined over-the-year employment gain of 201,100 jobs, which was 13.8 percent of the overall job increase for the nation.

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

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Employment increased in 283 of 346 largest counties for year ending September 2017 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2018/employment-increased-in-283-of-346-largest-counties-for-year-ending-september-2017.htm (visited October 31, 2024).

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