Top metro cities for job growth in the Southeast United States
1. Fayettevile, Ark. – 5.2 percent, or 13,385 jobs (national rank No. 2)2. Athens, Ga. – 5 percent, or-4,632 jobs (national rank No. 6)3. Daphne-Fairhip-Foley, Ala. – 4.9 percent, or 4,208 jobs (national rank No. 7)\4. Sebring, Fla. – 4.8 percent, or 1,635 jobs (national rank No. 8)5. Nashville – 4.6 per cent, or 43,392 jobs (national rank No. 11)6. Morristown, Tenn. – 4.2 percent, or 2,043 jobs (national rank No. 14)7. Auburn-Opelika, Ala. – 4.2 percent, or 2,938 jobs (national rank No .16)8. Naples, Fla. – 4.1 percent , or 6,466 jobs (national rank No. 17)9. Chattanooga – 9,377 jobs, or 3.8 percent (national rank No. 21)10. Johnson City – 3.7 percent, or 3,147 jobs (national rank No. 22)Source: 24/7 WallStreet assessment of employment growth in metropolitan areas from January to October, 2017. Bellingham, Wash., had the fastest growth at 5.5 percent, adding 5,609 jobs during the first 10 months of the year.
Employment in the Chattanooga area this year is growing more than three times as fast as the rest of the country, placing Chattanooga among the top cities for job growth in 2017, according to a new study of employment trends by the web site 24/7 Wall Street.
From January through October, employers in the six-county Chattanooga metropolitan area added 9,377 net new jobs, boosting overall employment in the region by 3.8 percent. That ranked as the 21st best rate of job growth among all 388 metropolitan cities in the United States.
Chattanooga was among four Tennessee metro areas among the top 10 metro areas for job growth in the South so far in 2017. Overall, Tennessee’s jobless rate fell this fall to 3 percent – the lowest level on record – and Chattanooga’s unemployment rate fell in October to 3.5 percent – one of the lowest months in the past two decades.
The fastest growth rate in Tennessee was in metro Nashville, which added 43,392 jobs in the first 10 months of the year to grow employment by 4.6 percent, BLS figures show.