By Adam Pagnucco.
Part One summarized the premise of this series: an examination of key stats from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) comparing Montgomery County to its largest neighbors. Part Two looked at population. Part Three looked at gross domestic product (GDP). Part Four looked at per capita GDP. Part Five looked at personal income. Part Six looked at per capita personal income. Now let’s examine wage and salary employment.
The stats in this post pertain to payroll employees. Self-employed people, or proprietors, are discussed separately.
The chart below shows wage and salary employment growth for the large jurisdictions in the region in the most recent year measured.
In 2022, MoCo’s payroll job creation fell short of the region’s average but exceeded Howard, Arlington and Alexandria. The region was still recovering from the short-term job losses of the pandemic.
Now let’s look at the five-year change.
During this period, MoCo was one of five jurisdictions to lose payroll jobs. Alexandria stands out for its huge losses.
This chart shows the ten-year change.
Over the last decade, MoCo has seen little payroll employment growth while five of our competitors grew by double digits. Alexandria is once again the outlier.
The chart below shows MoCo’s wage and salary employment since 1969. After decades of expansion, payroll job growth has stalled for nearly fifteen years. Aside from Alexandria and Prince George’s, the other large jurisdictions in the region do not have jobs records like that.
Accordingly, the chart below shows MoCo’s percentage of the region’s payroll jobs since 1969. This has been in free fall for twenty years. Part of that is related to surging growth in exurbs like Loudoun and Prince William. But when you’re not creating jobs, it’s hard to keep up.
Wage and salary employment is just one part of the jobs market. There is also a large and growing population of self-employed people in the region. We will look at them next.