Some small towns have truly kicked into high gear by creating a sizable number of new jobs. The Cajun town of Lafayette, Louisiana, for example, ballooned from 150,000 jobs to now nearly 170,000 jobs in a short two year time span. But what about big cities? Because of the already sizable population, it is much more difficult to attain very high percentage gains as seen for some small towns. The New York metro region added 128,000 net new jobs in the past 12 months, yet matches only the national average growth rate of 1.5 percent. Below is the breakdown of job market conditions among those cities-suburbs that have at least 1.5 million jobs already. For most major cities, recent job gains are only making up for the losses that had occurred during the deep recession a few years ago. Washington, D.C. is one exception because it did not have a recession due to government stimulus money. But outside of the D.C. Beltway, there are two cities which are now setting new highs: Dallas and Houston. The intrastate jobs rivalry also implies why the Texans are a bit happier than the Cowboys.
