St. George, Elkhart-Goshen, and Athens-Clarke have largest gains in employment, December 2017

In December 2017, the largest over-the-year percentage gains in employment occurred in St. George, Utah (+5.8 percent), Elkhart-Goshen, Indiana (+5.7 percent), and Athens-Clarke County, Georgia (+5.4 percent).

Ocean City, New Jersey was the only other metropolitan area with a 12-month employment increase over 5.0 percent. There were 6 other metropolitan areas that had increases of 4.0 percent or more over the December 2016 to December 2017 period.

The largest over-the-year percentage decrease in employment occurred in Cape Girardeau, Missouri-Ilinois (−5.4 percent), followed by Grand Forks, North Dakota-Minnesota (−3.2 percent), and Elmira, New York, and Michigan City-La Porte, Indiana (−2.6 percent each). There were 4 other areas with employment decreases that were −2.0 percent or larger.

The largest over-the-year percentage increases in employment among large metropolitan areas (those with a population of 1 million or more in the 2010 Census) occurred in Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida (+3.8 percent), Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, California (+3.4 percent), and San Antonio-New Braunfels, Texas (+3.2 percent). The largest over-the-year percentage decreases among large areas occurred in Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, Virginia-North Carolina (−0.9 percent) and Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, New York (−0.8 percent).

There were 316 metropolitan areas that had over-the-year increases in nonfarm payroll employment in December, 60 had decreases, and 12 had no change.

These data are from the Current Employment Statistics (State and Metro Area) program and are not seasonally adjusted. Data for the most recent month are preliminary and may be revised. To learn more, see "Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment — December 2017" (HTML) (PDF). Also see Charts related to the latest "Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment" news release.