Total nonfarm jobs, the latest month against the same month a year earlier, from the BLS Current Employment Statistics; fastest growth first.
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Rankings · Fastest Job Growth by State
Fastest Job Growth by State, South Carolina Leads (2026)
Total nonfarm jobs, the latest month against the same month a year earlier, from the BLS Current Employment Statistics; fastest growth first.
By The Honest Local · 50 states · every value links to its public source
1.8%South Carolina leads with the highest job growth in a year of all 50 states
The top five states
No. 1South Carolina1.8%job growth in a year
No. 2Minnesota1.5%job growth in a year
No. 3Louisiana1.5%job growth in a year
No. 4Nevada1.3%job growth in a year
No. 5New Mexico1.3%job growth in a year
Fastest Job Growth by State on the map
Fastest job growth by city and state, states
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Fastest Job Growth by State, all 50
The full ranking
| Place | job growth in a year | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Carolina | 1.8% |
| 2 | Minnesota | 1.5% |
| 3 | Louisiana | 1.5% |
| 4 | Nevada | 1.3% |
| 5 | New Mexico | 1.3% |
| 6 | Missouri | 1.2% |
| 7 | Utah | 1.2% |
| 8 | North Carolina | 1.2% |
| 9 | Connecticut | 1.1% |
| 10 | Texas | 1.0% |
| 11 | Idaho | 1.0% |
| 12 | Alabama | 1.0% |
| 13 | Arkansas | 0.8% |
| 14 | Alaska | 0.8% |
| 15 | Pennsylvania | 0.8% |
| 16 | California | 0.7% |
| 17 | Oklahoma | 0.7% |
| 18 | Florida | 0.6% |
| 19 | North Dakota | 0.6% |
| 20 | Washington | 0.6% |
| 21 | Wisconsin | 0.6% |
| 22 | Arizona | 0.5% |
| 23 | Kansas | 0.5% |
| 24 | Massachusetts | 0.4% |
| 25 | New Hampshire | 0.4% |
| 26 | New York | 0.4% |
| 27 | Tennessee | 0.4% |
| 28 | Michigan | 0.3% |
| 29 | South Dakota | 0.3% |
| 30 | Ohio | 0.2% |
| 31 | Delaware | 0.2% |
| 32 | Mississippi | 0.2% |
| 33 | Wyoming | 0.2% |
| 34 | New Jersey | 0.1% |
| 35 | Maine | 0.1% |
| 36 | Hawaii | 0.1% |
| 37 | Illinois | 0.1% |
| 38 | Nebraska | 0.1% |
| 39 | Rhode Island | 0.1% |
| 40 | Colorado | 0.1% |
| 41 | Kentucky | 0.0% |
| 42 | Iowa | -0.1% |
| 43 | West Virginia | -0.2% |
| 44 | Maryland | -0.2% |
| 45 | Georgia | -0.2% |
| 46 | Vermont | -0.2% |
| 47 | Indiana | -0.5% |
| 48 | Virginia | -0.8% |
| 49 | Montana | -1.0% |
| 50 | the US Virgin Islands | -2.7% |
Sources and method
How we got this. Job growth comes from tape_readings, which src/tape/job-growth.ts refreshes monthly from the BLS Current Employment Statistics: total nonfarm employment, not seasonally adjusted, the latest month against the same month a year earlier, in percent. A metro reads its own CES series (Vancouver, Washington shares Portland's, the way BLS publishes it); a state reads its statewide series. Cities and states each rank on their own list, fastest growth first. It refreshes monthly.
Rankings by The Honest Local from public data, one page per list, refreshed on each source’s own cycle. Places with no reading are left out rather than estimated. Every value on this page carries its source in the page’s structured data.
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