Which major metropolitan area leads the nation in terms of the rate of job creation? Orlando, Florida. As noted in a previous blog post, this isn't a surprise, but became official with the release of the April employment data for metropolitan areas this morning. From April 2013 to April 2014, employment rose by 4.5% in metro Orlando, a higher rate than any other major metropolitan area (private sector job growth was 4.9%). How am I defining major metropolitan area? Though there's no official definition, reasonable thresholds are 250,000 or 500,000 workers. Orlando is actually #1 for any metro area with more than 135,000 workers (it's #3 when considering all those with more than 100,000; behind College Station, TX and Naples, FL).
You may be wondering where Florida ranks compared to other states (since it has two of the top three fastest growing job markets in the nation when considering areas with 100,000+ workers). Florida is tied for #3 with Texas (North Dakota is #1 at 5.1% followed by Nevada at 3.7%). By the way, Orlando added more jobs in the last year than either Nevada or North Dakota.
