July 30, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Counties with largest gains and losses in employment, December 2006-2007

Among large counties in the United States, the largest gains in the level of employment from December 2006 to December 2007 were recorded in the counties of Harris, Texas (73,200), New York, New York (52,000), King, Washington (35,200), Los Angeles, California (32,900), and Dallas, Texas (31,300).

[Chart data—TXT]

The largest decline in employment levels occurred in Orange, California (-25,300), followed by the counties of Wayne, Michigan (-19,900), Lee, Florida (-12,700), Pinellas, Florida (-11,500), and Oakland, Michigan (-9,100).

Overall, employment rose in 201 of the 328 large counties from December 2006 to December 2007. Employment declined in 98 of the counties.

The BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages program produced these data, which are preliminary and subject to revision. Find out more in "County Employment and Wages: Fourth Quarter 2007" (PDF) (HTML), news release 08-1014. Data presented here are for all workers covered by State and Federal unemployment insurance programs. Large counties are the 328 U.S. counties with annual average employment levels of 75,000 or more in 2006.

Related TED article:

• Counties with highest average weekly wages at the end of 2007