Made a Map - Job Markets That Best Recovered from Recession

I found a found a table on Glassdoor that utilized Bureau of Labor Statistics information to create a ranking system comparing job growth, employment %, and wage increase. It was 327 cities.

• Unemployment: How much the local unemployment rate has fallen;
• Jobs: How much has local employment grown (the number of employed workers in the city); and
• Wages: How much the average hourly wage in the city has grown.

Here's my map.

Winners and Losers The list of rebound cities is dominated by cities in Texas. Of the 15 most recovered cities, five are in the Lone Star State. Midland, TX tops the list with a 2.7 percent drop in its unemployment rate, 30 percent job growth, and 27 percent growth in its average hourly wage. Midland, TX is followed closely by Odessa, TX, with a 4.6 percentage point drop in unemployment, 26 percent job growth, and 20 percent wage growth.

Rounding out the five least recovered cities are Decatur, IL, Glens Falls, NY, Pine Bluff, AR, and Carson City, NV. All of these cities have lower total employment today than in 2009, and have witnessed some of the lowest wage growth in the country.

Representing city number 67

Number 323 here...

Woohoo 170 on the list, right behind Flint, MI. And we're becoming more & more like Flint as time progresses...

Hmm, number 52 here. Honestly thought we'd be higher.

Classic Decatur IL. Used to work there. Just awful. I'm guessing the TX strong recovery has more than a little to do with oil and natural gas expansion.

The city I moved from is 224, good move on my part I'm thinking. My home city is 177, which I wish was much higher. It got hit really hard which prompted my first move. I just could not find a job, any job, back in 06-07.

fritzsch wrote: Classic Decatur IL. Used to work there. Just awful. I'm guessing the TX strong recovery has more than a little to do with oil and natural gas expansion.

Yep. Pretty much entirely the case.

I'm surprised to see more than a few places in south Florida in the top 50.

In general, wages across America have remained flat, which is something we've known for a few years now.

Big shout out from #272 on the list. It honestly would not have surprised me if the recovery was worse. Aircraft manufacturing is down here from what it used to be.

I've spent some time at number 5.......It's not a happy valley.

Live in 106, work in 206.

Rocking the Rock at number 12 and have lived in #8 and am looking at either 4 or 5 for our next move.

Glad I moved from my hometown. At 274 it's been in trouble for a long time.

The data is 2009-2014. In recent months I understand that there have been a fair number of layoffs in Texas, including a friend of mine, due to the drop in oil prices, with so many places there that build hardware and service the oil & gas industry.

Boom --> Bust, just ask my mortgage statement.

That is a cool tool though, I love the infographic and info-animation trend driven by easy access to reams of data. This one is fantastic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo

There is nothing on that list within 100 miles of me. (Sad)

In reply to SVreX:

303 out of 327: Albany, GA

In reply to MattGent:

My wife's employer informed her yesterday, that her once full time position that has had the hours slowly reduced over the last six months, is being reduced, again, to 20 hours max per week. That is below what we can afford.

She started sending out resumes yesterday morning. By the time I got home from work yesterday she already went on one interview, has another one scheduled for today, and turned down one offer due to the distance from home.

I feel that is a good sign about our area at least. Not much gas and oil stuff going on around here.

Asheville, NC is at #88 with a 0.075 gain in employment. Sounds like a flat job market to me.

Yeah, Midland and Odessa will give back a lot of those gains. That is the Oil and Gas area. I remember my buddy had to go out to Midland for work a lot because the oil and gas companies kept hiring his drivers at a much higher rate. Well, last month with the down turn, most of those guys were all back at his door trying to get their old jobs back.

E36 M3. Even SVRex has it better than me. Warner Robins,GA #305. Maybe I should move....

The places that depended on Northern ie union retirees havent done very well with recovery either. Big difference between Chattanooga and Knoxville Tn for example.

Fascinating map, but an example of how the data can sometimes not show the full story. You have Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor MI on there but you are missing the Detroit Metro area. That's not your fault, but the data you have available to you and the unique situation of Detroit.

If you look at the Detroit Metro as a whole it probably doesn't belong on the top 100 I'll grant you. But outside of Detroit itself there has been massive job growth and corresponding wage growth since about 2010. The Auto Industry, not just the big three, but also Nissan, Toyota, ChanGang plus tier one suppliers have been on a hiring frenzy. People have been poached between companies, people are moving into the area from out of state. There has been a corresponding growth in housing prices too. We’ve seen our house increase nearly 50% from the bottom of the slump. We also bought a rental house in Ferndale last year for what we could have bought a house in Berkley for 18 months prior.

Yes Detroit as a whole still has issues, but mid-town and down town are booming like you would not believe. They are unrecognizable from a few years ago and housing in the mid-town area is essentially impossible to get, to the point that the gentrification is now starting to spread.

I mention Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor, your list. From personal observation and anecdotal evidence I'd say that they are in the correct order, Ann Arbor wasn't hit as hard as the rest of the state in 08-09, but has had some growth. Grand Rapids has been growing for 20 years now and is going from strength to strength. But both of them are left behind by what I see in Down Town Detroit and in the North and West Detroit Suburbs.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

What is it that is causing Monroe, MI to be #17?

As for the quality of the data, I see that there was no reporting for the entire state of Indiana.

In reply to JohnRW1621:

There are a number of auto and auto related plants with 10 miles and a lot within 20. It's also somewhat misleading as the down river communities were hit really hard in 08-09, some of that is comeback rather than true growth. It would be different if we were looking at 04-14 rather than 09-14

PHeller wrote: For America’s least recovered cities, Ocean City, NJ leads the way. In fact, this city’s average unemployment rate in 2015 is 4.9 percentage points higher than in 2009. Similarly, the city has seen a 26 percentage point drop in employment, and only 5 percent wage growth since the end of the recession.

I am not surprised.. I grew up in OCNJ. It is a resort town that is basically only really "open" from late may through mid-September. It has three blocks of "Businesses" down town, and a boardwalk that closes up shop once it gets cold. The rest of the town is now made up of multi-million dollar McMansions that are only used during the summer and weekends.. this leaves a very small year round population that mostly work in the Casinos and now that four of those are closed....