January 7, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Los Angeles County experiences largest employment gains

Of the nation’s biggest counties, Los Angeles recorded the largest absolute gain in employment—93,336 jobs—in 1998.

[Chart data—TXT]

The second largest gain in employment by county occurred in Harris, Texas (86,524), followed by Maricopa, Arizona (79,481), Dallas, Texas (71,103), and Orange, California (61,822). These five counties accounted for 12.6 percent of total U.S. covered employment growth. Note that all five of these counties are in the South or West.

Employment declined in 17 of the country’s biggest counties from 1997 to 1998. The largest absolute declines in employment occurred in Wayne County, Michigan (7,150), Genesee County, Michigan (7,092), Trumbull County, Ohio (2,896), Honolulu County, Hawaii (1,958) and St. Louis City, Missouri (1,791).

The BLS Covered Employment and Wages program produced these data. Pay data presented here are for all workers covered by State and Federal unemployment insurance programs. Find more information on employment in large counties in 1998 in "Employment and Average Annual Pay for Large Counties, 1998," news release USDL 00-01. The largest counties are defined as those with covered employment levels of 75,000 or more in 1998.