US Counties With the Lowest Private Job Growth
3,212 US counties ranked by private job growth, from lowest to highest. First are Cimarron County, OK (-30.5), Lynn County, TX (-29.8) and Mineral County, NV (-29). The middle one of the 3,212 has 1.69.
What this measures
The percentage change in private-sector jobs from the year before. Source: BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.
For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.
The 100 lowest counties
Every state, lowest first
Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.
| Rank | State | % a year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 0.138 |
| 2 | Massachusetts | 1.03 |
| 3 | Iowa | 1.18 |
| 4 | Indiana | 1.26 |
| 5 | Mississippi | 1.33 |
| 6 | Illinois | 1.43 |
| 7 | Louisiana | 1.45 |
| 8 | Rhode Island | 1.47 |
| 9 | Connecticut | 1.52 |
| 10 | Ohio | 1.54 |
| 11 | Wisconsin | 1.56 |
| 12 | Washington | 1.6 |
| 13 | Maryland | 1.62 |
| 14 | Oregon | 1.62 |
| 15 | Minnesota | 1.68 |
| 16 | Puerto Rico | 1.69 |
| 17 | Pennsylvania | 1.75 |
| 18 | Vermont | 1.75 |
| 19 | Michigan | 1.76 |
| 20 | New Jersey | 1.86 |
| 21 | New Hampshire | 1.89 |
| 22 | Missouri | 1.9 |
| 23 | Kansas | 1.97 |
| 24 | Colorado | 2.04 |
| 25 | Maine | 2.07 |
| 26 | Georgia | 2.09 |
| 27 | Utah | 2.09 |
| 28 | Montana | 2.14 |
| 29 | District of Columbia | 2.15 |
| 30 | West Virginia | 2.16 |
| 31 | Virginia | 2.25 |
| 32 | South Dakota | 2.31 |
| 33 | Hawaii | 2.33 |
| 34 | New York | 2.39 |
| 35 | Alabama | 2.41 |
| 36 | Kentucky | 2.43 |
| 37 | Arkansas | 2.43 |
| 38 | Nebraska | 2.5 |
| 39 | Wyoming | 2.54 |
| 40 | Tennessee | 2.54 |
| 41 | Idaho | 2.67 |
| 42 | North Dakota | 2.68 |
| 43 | New Mexico | 2.73 |
| 44 | Arizona | 2.83 |
| 45 | North Carolina | 2.87 |
| 46 | South Carolina | 2.92 |
| 47 | Oklahoma | 2.94 |
| 48 | Nevada | 3.02 |
| 49 | Delaware | 3.08 |
| 50 | Alaska | 3.17 |
| 51 | Texas | 3.46 |
| 52 | Florida | 3.5 |
More on private job growth
- US Counties With the Highest Private Job Growth
- Private job growth by US county: map by year and what it goes with
A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.