The four strongest large metropolitan areas for job seekers, with nonfarm employment up by at least 3% in the 12 months ending in July are Orlando, Florida; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Seattle, Washington, and; Houston, Texas. The top four large metropolitan areas with more than a million nonfarm workers are in states without an individual income tax.
The information was contained in a new report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics detailing employment and unemployment data.
The table below shows the best 15 large metro areas for job growth, with the total nonfarm employment (not seasonally adjusted), the number of jobs added over the last 12 months, and the percentage increase in jobs added over the past 12 months. Out of these 15-best performing metropolitan areas, eight of them are in the nine states with no personal income tax: Florida, Tennessee, Texas and Washington. Las Vegas, Nevada just missed the list at 16th—Nevada also doesn’t collect a personal income tax. Of all cities, Reno, Nevada was first, adding 5.9% more jobs over the past 12 months.
| Metro | State | July 2019 Nonfarm Employment (000s) | Jobs Added Since July 2018 (000s) | Percent Change July 2018 to July 2019 |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford | FL | 1,328.4 | 49 | 3.8 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | TX | 3,808.4 | 129.3 | 3.5 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue | WA | 2,128.3 | 70.1 | 3.4 |
| Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land | TX | 3,169.3 | 93.6 | 3 |
| Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale | AZ | 2,117.4 | 60.5 | 2.9 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara | CA | 1,157.2 | 29.4 | 2.6 |
| Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia | NC | 1,228.4 | 31.6 | 2.6 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward | CA | 2,504.1 | 63.9 | 2.6 |
| Cincinnati | OH | 1,136.3 | 26.3 | 2.4 |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater | FL | 1,366.8 | 31.5 | 2.4 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario | CA | 1,522.7 | 35.3 | 2.4 |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach | FL | 2,699.8 | 63.9 | 2.4 |
| Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin | TN | 1,025.1 | 23 | 2.3 |
| Austin-Round Rock | TX | 1,094.3 | 24.4 | 2.3 |
The three Texas metros accounted for 247,300 new jobs over the past 12 months, penciling out to 948 jobs added for every workday in a typical year in the Dallas, Houston and Austin areas. Texas’ big three produced more than 1-in-3 jobs created in the top-15 metro areas.
Looking at the report’s official unemployment rate data for cities with more than 100,000 people in the civilian workforce, the cities with the lowest unemployment in July 2019 were:
| July 2019 Unemployment Rate | |
| Burlington-South Burlington, VT | 1.9% |
| Midland, TX | 2.1% |
| Manchester, NH | 2.3% |
| Portland-South Portland, ME | 2.3% |
| Sioux Falls, SD | 2.4% |
| Fargo, ND | 2.5% |
| Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR | 2.5% |
| Boise City, ID | 2.6% |
| Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA | 2.6% |
| Fort Collins, CO | 2.6% |
At the other end of the spectrum, the cities with more than 100,000 workers with the highest unemployment in July 2019 shows six California cities with relatively high unemployment (11 cities being listed since Gulfport, Mississippi is tied with Stockton, California for 10th). That said, all but one of the cities, Yuma, Arizona with a 19.6% unemployment rate, have lower unemployment today than was the case nationally in 2009 and 2010 when the unemployment rate was 9.3% and 9.6%, respectively.
| July 2019 Unemployment Rate | |
| Yuma, AZ | 19.6% |
| Visalia-Porterville, CA | 9.1% |
| Bakersfield, CA | 8.3% |
| Merced, CA | 8.1% |
| Fresno, CA | 7.4% |
| Modesto, CA | 6.5% |
| McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX | 6.3% |
| Yakima, WA | 6.1% |
| District of Columbia | 5.9% |
| Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, MS | 5.9% |
| Stockton-Lodi, CA | 5.9% |
With states and cities featuring low taxes now seeing private-sector job growth at double the rate of their high-tax counterparts since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was signed into law in December of that year, expect to see low-tax metropolitan areas continue their job market dominance.