By Adam Pagnucco.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released its first estimates of employment, establishments and wages by county for 2022. Let’s see how Montgomery County and other large jurisdictions in the region did last year.
Let’s start with total payroll employment. The chart below shows one-year growth by jurisdiction and for the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria region as a whole.
The region’s payroll employment grew by 2.8% last year. MoCo grew by 1.9%, ranking 7th of the region’s 10 largest jurisdictions.
Most jurisdictions here and elsewhere are still recovering from the pandemic recession. The chart below shows 2022 total employment as a percentage of the pre-pandemic employment in 2019.
Again, MoCo ranks 7th of 10. Loudoun and Prince William counties in Virginia are the only large Washington area jurisdictions that have fully regained their pre-pandemic employment although most of the region is close.
Now let’s look at the 15-year history of total employment. I am using 2007 as a base year since it is the year before the Great Recession took effect. The 2007-22 period saw two recessions and two recoveries, with the second one not yet complete.
MoCo’s total jobs base was actually less than it was 15 years ago. Prince George’s and Alexandria are the only other large jurisdictions for whom that is true. This chart shows as well as any how post-Great Recession growth has been skewed towards D.C. and parts of Northern Virginia.
Most parts of the Washington area have substantial government employment which partially insulates us from the business cycle. We will examine private sector employment next.