The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released September 2015 jobs data for the nation's 387 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), as well as other metropolitan regions. We summarize the results for California's MSAs and metropolitan divisions (components of the San Francisco and Los Angeles MSAs) below. (Non-seasonally adjusted data is displayed.)
The San Jose MSA, as well as the San Francisco and San Rafael metropolitan divisions of the San Francisco MSA, have had among the fastest job growth rates in the nation over the past year. (Provo, Utah and Medford, Oregon are the only two MSAs with a faster job growth rate than San Jose.) Among MSAs with a population of more than 1 million, San Jose had the highest job growth rate over the past year. Ranking 5th in job growth, the El Centro MSA (Imperial County) also has the second highest unemployment rate among all MSAs. (Neighboring Yuma, Arizona has a higher 26% unemployment rate.) The San Diego and Vallejo MSAs also rank in the top 20 for their rates of job growth over the past year.
While almost all of California's MSAs rank in the top half of the 387 MSAs for percentage job growth, 10 of the 20 MSAs with the highest unemployment rates (highlighted in yellow) also are in California. (For more information on California's September 2015 jobs report, see our earlier post here.)
