It's All Relative, Job Figures Show
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The Washington area generated more jobs over the past year than any other metropolitan area in the United States except New York, as noted here last week. But Charles W. McMillion, an economist with District-based consultancy MBG Information Services, notes that looking just at the number of jobs created does not tell the whole story.
Using Labor Department data, McMillion analyzes the percentage growth of jobs in each metropolitan area every month. The number of jobs in the Washington area rose 2.5 percent in the 12 months ended in March, only good enough to be ranked No. 109 among 418 states and metro areas in job creation.
At the top of the list were tiny communities such as St. George, Utah, and Ocean City, N.J., which can achieve large percentage gains by adding only a few thousand jobs.
This time a year ago, according to McMillion's rankings, the Washington region ranked No. 38.
It's not that local job creation has changed much (though the 2.5 percent increase is down a bit from 2.8 percent a year ago.) What's happening is that job growth has accelerated in the rest of the country, so the Washington area's growth
now seems less impressive by comparison.
--Neil Irwin
