10 industries with double-digit job growth

By Susan Ricker, CareerBuilder Writer

If the economic meltdown of 2008 and the following years of rebuilding the economy were made into a movie, it'd be tediously slow, and you'd just skip it and ask a friend how it ends. Spoiler alert: It's starting to become clear how this movie ends, and you'll definitely want to hear about it.

CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. released a new study tracking labor trends in the U.S. The study uses EMSI's rich labor-market database, which pulls from more than 90 national and state employment resources and includes detailed information on employees and self-employed workers.*

"Job creation in the U.S. is on an upward trajectory," says Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder. "While growth has been slower or stagnant in certain areas, there is a wide range of industries where the production of new jobs has accelerated. Markets tied to energy, production, technology, health care, transportation and consulting have increased employment 10 to 30 percent over the last few years."

Check out this list of industries in which job growth has increased by double digits, with the addition of at least 20,000 jobs from 2010 to 2012:

10 locations with the most job growth
Where are these comebacks happening? "There is a close correlation between the top locations for job growth and the concentration of fast-growing industries in those markets," Ferguson says. "Technology hiring is a big contributor for growth in the [San Francisco] Bay Area and Raleigh, and Texas cities, Oklahoma and Salt Lake are benefiting from strong oil and gas activity. The rebound in manufacturing helped to land Detroit in the top 10 while health care continues to thrive in Phoenix."

The 10 metropolitan statistical areas (out of the most populous metros) with the most job growth from 2010 to 2012 are:

1. San Jose, Calif. (includes Sunnyvale and Santa Clara): 63,290 jobs added since 2010, signifying 7 percent growth
2. Houston (includes Sugar Land and Baytown): 165,969 jobs added, up 6 percent
3. Austin, Texas (includes Round Rock and San Marcos): 49,131 jobs added, up 6 percent
4. Detroit (includes Warren and Livonia): 92,407 jobs added, up 5 percent
5. Salt Lake City: 34,137 jobs added, up 5 percent
6. Oklahoma City: 28,992 jobs added, up 5 percent
7. Raleigh, N.C. (includes Cary): 24,725 jobs added, up 5 percent
8. Dallas (includes Forth Worth and Arlington): 128,644 jobs added, up 4 percent
9. San Francisco (includes Oakland and Fremont): 84,014 jobs added, up 4 percent
10. Phoenix (includes Mesa and Glendale): 81,606 jobs added, up 4 percent

Re-emerging jobs
Jobs that were lost during the recession are making a comeback of their own, especially in states where production occupations were cut. One example of a rebounding job is computer-controlled machine tool operators, an occupation with more workers now than in 2007. Other production jobs, such as machinists and engine assemblers, are following in recovery, getting close to pre-recession employment levels.

*EMSI data is collected from more than 90 federal and state sources, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau and state labor departments. EMSI removes suppressions often found in publicly available data and includes proprietors, creating a complete picture of the workforce.

Susan Ricker is a writer and blogger for CareerBuilder.com and its job blog, The Work Buzz. She researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues.

Copyright 2012 CareerBuilder. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without prior written authority.

Article Reprints
Permission must be obtained from CareerBuilder.com to reprint any of its articles. Please send a request to reprints@careerbuilder.com.
Story Filed Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 1:26 PM

Content and job search provided by CareerBuilder LLC, and its subsidiaries and divisions. CareerBuilder Privacy Policy