Half of New US Jobs Were Created In Just Five States

The rich get richer. JL

Rex Nutting reports in MarketWatch:

California, Texas, Florida, New York and Georgia have about 36% of U.S. population, but captured 51% of the job growth. The same thing happened in 2015 and 2016: The biggest, most dynamic economies in America got bigger and more dynamic, largely because these states are home to the big cities that create a preponderance of new jobs. Big and growing cities, such as Dallas, New York, Atlanta, Miami, Los Angeles, Houston, Riverside, San Francisco and Orlando, are the powerhouses of the economy.
Half of the new jobs in the United States last year were created in just five states: California, Texas, Florida, New York and Georgia. These states have about 36% of U.S. population, but captured 51% of the job growth, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This isn’t unusual. The same thing happened in 2015 and 2016: The biggest, most dynamic economies in America got bigger and more dynamic, largely because these states are home to the big cities that create a preponderance of new jobs. Big and growing cities, such as Dallas, New York, Atlanta, Miami, Los Angeles, Houston, Riverside, San Francisco and Orlando, are the powerhouses of the economy.
Among the states, the biggest change in the 2017 list over 2016 is that Pennsylvania moved into the top 10 and Missouri fell out.

Two-thirds of new jobs were created in these 10 states. The top five created half of the new jobs.

Some big states grew payrolls rapidly despite their size. California, with nearly 17 million jobs, added 2.1%. Texas, with 12.5 million jobs, increased employment by 2.5%, as did Florida, with 8.7 million jobs.

This map shows how strong hiring was in each state in 2017.

Seven of the 10 fastest job-creating states were in the West. Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Idaho, California and Colorado all increased employment by 2% or more in 2017. See the data.
Most of the states in the Northeast and Midwest grew slower than the 1.4% national average. The Rust Belt is still struggling, although Boston, New York, Washington and — surprisingly — Detroit have been adding a lot of jobs this year. Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland and Indianapolis are lagging.
Many of the states in the Southeast grew a bit faster than the national average, boosted by warm weather and lower costs. Lots of jobs are being created in the growing cities of Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.
Energy
Looking at 2017 job growth by industry sector, one of the things that stands out is the strong acceleration in manufacturing and mining jobs after a moribund 2016 when energy prices were way down. Manufacturing added 196,000 jobs in 2017 after dropping 16,000 in 2016. Mining added 59,000 jobs in 2017 after falling 75,000 in 2016 and 151,000 in 2015.
Almost all of the acceleration in manufacturing, mining, construction and temp-help employment last year was directly related to the rebound in energy production, economists at UBS argued in a recent study. Manufacturing jobs increased by 36,000 in Texas, and most of that gain was due to oil-related equipment manufacturing, UBS chief economist Seth Carpenter wrote. Mining jobs rose by 29,000 in the state, according to the BLS.
Oklahoma also benefited from the bounce in oil production and related construction and manufacturing employment, Carpenter said. Oklahoma added 20,000 jobs in 2017, including 6,000 in mining.
Other energy-reliant states — Louisiana, West Virginia, North Dakota, Alaska and Wyoming — grew considerably slower than the national average, despite the increase in prices that boosted energy production.
Retail
The other notable thing about U.S. 2017 job growth was the 66,000 decline in retail jobs after gains of about 200,000 in 2015 and 2016. Most states had small declines or small increases of a few thousand at most, but the losses were heavy in four states: Illinois (down 17,400), Ohio (down 17,000), New York (down 12,400), and Louisiana (down 9,100). Those losses were large enough to depress the overall growth numbers in those states.
A state-by-state look at job growth shows that everything is local when it comes to the economy. Regions that are growing tend to attract more workers and more investment, while sluggish states tend to remain down and out.
It’s the economic version of Newton’s law of inertia: Economies at rest stay at rest unless acted upon by some force.