Metro Job Growth Results – 2025 Year-end Preliminary

After some delays due the federal shutdown, the BLS is releasing data regularly. Revised, preliminary data for 2025 now tells us the full story of job growth last year.

US job growth registered just 0.2% in 2025, led by large job losses in federal government, trade/transport/utilities, and manufacturing. If federal government held constant in 2025, national growth would still be lower (0.4%) versus growth in 2024 (0.9%). Massive job growth in Health Care (+761,000 jobs) is keeping the economy afloat, as is new job creation in Hospitality/Restaurants and Local Government.

How is job growth faring at the metro level? Headlight’s Economic Scorecard shows that 59% of metros grew in 2025, with mid-sized metros most likely to grow (71%).

Metro Employment Growth, Jan. 2026 (Y-o-Y)

Among top performers in 2025, Fresno, Raleigh, Las Vegas, and San Jose grew 1.7% or more, leading large metros. Medium-sized metro leaders were Fayetteville (AR), Stockton, Reno, and Bakersfield (CA) which grew 2.0% or more. Small metros Merced (CA), Barnstable (MA), and Sandusky (OH) led with growth rates of 4.6% or higher.

In addition to our rankings, Our Economic Scorecard provides a one-page snapshot on every metro showing job growth trends by industry as shown below:

Click here to download your community’s Economic Scorecard.