Cities Adding the Most Jobs

Since May 2014, employment in the Provo-Orem metro area grew by 20.6%, the second highest job growth in Utah and fifth highest nationwide. Accounting for some 11,500 net new jobs, professional and business services drove growth more than any other sector in the last five years. Jobs in that sector tend to require high educational attainment and are often relatively well paying. In Provo-Orem, 41.3% of adults have a bachelor’s degree — compared to 32.0% of adults nationwide — and the typical household earns $70,196 a year, nearly $10,000 more than the typical American household.

Nashville is one of only half a dozen metro areas to report employment growth of 20% or more over the last five years. There are nearly 194,000 more people working in the Nashville area today than in 2014. Job growth has been fueled in part by population growth, as the number of people living in the metro area climbed by 9.8% between mid-2013 and mid-2018, more than double the 3.5% national population growth over that period.

Nicknamed “Music City” for its central role in the history of American music, Nashville has a booming tourism industry. The leisure and hospitality sector alone added a net of 27,100 jobs in the last five years. The fastest growing industry, however, was professional and business services, which netted some 34,200 new jobs since 2014.

Reno, Nevada, has one of the fastest growing working populations in the country. In the last five years, the metro area’s labor force grew by 18.1%, more than in all but four other U.S. cities. Over the same period, job growth in the metro area more than kept pace. Total employment climbed by 23.9% in Reno between May 2014 and May 2019, more than triple the national employment growth of 7.3% over that time.

Manufacturing was the fastest growing industry in Reno over the last five years, with total employment more than doubling.

There are over 18,500 more people working in the Bend-Redmond, Oregon, metro area today than there were five years ago. The near nation-leading employment growth was driven largely by the trade, transportation, and utilities industry, which added a net of 3,200 jobs between May 2014 and May 2019. The rapid job growth contributed to unemployment falling from 7.4% in May 2014 to 3.3% in May 2019.

The strong job market likely helps explain the metro area’s relative prosperity. The poverty rate of 9.4% in Bend-Redmond is well below the national poverty rate of 13.4%.

Overall employment grew at a staggering 25.7% pace in the St. George, Utah, metro area over the last five years. There are currently over 74,000 Americans working in the metro area, up from 59,000 in 2014. Even though the size of the metro area’s labor force also grew by a nation-leading 24.2% over the same period, job growth more than kept pace with demand and the unemployment rate in the city fell to 2.9% in May from 4.0% in 2014.

Over the last five years, the trade, transportation, and utilities industry accounted for the most job growth. Of the more than 15,000 net new jobs in the city, 3,900 were in the trade, transportation, and utilities industry.