Key Takeaways:

• Median employment for Construction industry slips by 0.1%;
• Kentucky, Alaska and Georgia lead all states in annual Construction employment gains, at 3.4%, 3% and 2.8%, respectively;
• Nevada and New Jersey lead for growth across all sectors, and are the only two states with double-digit gains.

By Manuel Gutierrez, Consulting Economist to NKBA

Employment reached 146.8 million jobs nationally in July, up 6.5% from a year ago — but not all states enjoyed similar increases. State-by-state, the range was from a high of 11.6% in Nevada to a low of 2.1% in Oklahoma.

The median change in state employment is 5.3%, meaning half the states’ registered change above this figure, and half were below.

The states were classified into two groups, depending on whether they were above or below the median. This is shown in the left panel of Map 1 where the states colored in green are those with growth equal to or higher than the 5.3% median growth, while the yellow states were below.

The map reveals a concentration of above-average growth states for the Northeast and Northwest regions.

Among the three most populous states — California, Texas and Florida — only Texas showed employment growth above the median, although California, at 5.2% growth, is just a shade below. Florida employment over the last year is up by 4.3%, a point below the median.

While overall employment by state grew by a median of 6.5% over the last year, Construction was actually down by 0.1%.

In the right panel of Map 1 are state employment changes for the Construction sector. For this industry sector, the median employment change for all states is negative, falling 0.1%.

States with above-average growth in construction are concentrated in the mid-section of the country. These areas range from Nevada in the West to Illinois and Kentucky in the Midwest. Southeastern states such as Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas also show above-average growth.

Figure 1 displays the 15 fastest-growing states for both overall Employment and for the Construction sector.

In terms of total employment, the list is led by Nevada (+11.6%), New Jersey (+10.1%) and Massachusetts (+9.3%).

This is in marked contrast to the Construction sector, where the fastest-growing states do not coincide with the national norms.

In fact, only five states show up on both lists. They are Rhode Island, Alaska, Utah, Idaho and Nevada.

Map 2 displays employment at the state level in eight economic sectors for which the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides data. In each of the maps, except for the one labeled All Sectors, the shading indicates the share of the state’s employment in that sector, with darker shades of green signifying a larger share.

For instance, in the Construction map, Utah and Idaho are shown in darker green, meaning that construction comprises a greater share of their state’s total employment, while in Michigan or Wisconsin, which very pale green, it represents a much smaller share of the total.

The maps show a state’s relative importance, or dependence, on each of the economic sectors. It is evident that Nevada is much more dependent on Leisure & Hospitality than most other states.

Manufacturing is more concentrated in upper Midwestern states — Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin — as well in Southern states including Alabama and Mississippi.

The All-Sectors map displays different type of data. It shows each state’s employment as a share of total U.S. employment, including all economic sectors. States’ shares of employment are closely related to their corresponding shares of population. That is, more populous states like California or Texas also have the largest number of employed and thus the highest shares of U.S. employment.

In Map 3, state changes in employment over the last year are displayed for each of nine economic sectors. Again, similar to Map 1, states in green are those whose change is equal to or above the median change for each sector, and yellow states are below the median.

Maine stands out as a state that has above-average gains in employment across all sectors. Such uniformity is unusual.

Charts: