Employment by county in 2001 - Labor Month in Review - unemployment insurance and compensation - Brief Article

Monthly Labor Review, Dec, 2002

The 248 U.S. counties with 100,000 or more employees accounted for about two-thirds of total U.S. employment covered by Unemployment Insurance and Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees programs in 2001. Placer County, CA, had the largest over-the-year percentage increase in employment (6.0 percent), followed by the counties of Collier, FL (5.9 percent), Collin, TX (5.7 percent), Manatee, FL (5.1 percent), and Lee, FL (4.7 percent). The median employment increase among the largest counties was 0.1 percent in 2001.

The largest absolute gains were recorded in the counties of Harris, TX (30,999), San Diego, CA (24,326), Los Angeles, CA (22,633), Clark, NV (22,362), and Orange, CA (20,580).

More than 100 of the 248 largest counties recorded employment declines in 2001. Of the 111 that experienced declines in employment, the largest percentage decline was in Elkhart County, IN (-6.8 percent). The counties of Lorain and Mahoning, OH, had the next largest decline (-3.5 percent each), followed by San Francisco County, CA, and Macomb County, MI (-3.4 percent each).

The largest absolute declines in employment in 2001 occurred in Cook County, IL (-37,351), New York County, NY (-32,910), Wayne County, MI (-27,974), Santa Clara County, CA (-22,112), and San Francisco County, CA (-20,423).