US Coasts Boast Job Growth


13 March, 2016

Job growth happened on the east and west coasts of the U.S. last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The howmuch.net map shows that most jobs were created in California. The Los Angeles area produced more than 133,000 new jobs.

New York City saw the biggest increase in employment. More than 150,000 new jobs were added in the New York City area in 2015.

In Texas, the Dallas-Fort Worth area witnessed a job increase of nearly 100,000 in 2015.

And in the Detroit, Michigan area – hurt by years of recession – more than 39,000 jobs were created in 2015.

Over the past six years, businesses in America created 14 million new jobs. Nearly 2.5 million were added in 2014 and 2015.

The lowest unemployment rate in U.S. history happened in 1953, when the jobless rate was 2.5 percent. Today, America's unemployment rate is 4.9 percent.

But as jobs increased, the average hourly wage in America declined. Many of the jobs created since 2014 are retail and service sector jobs. Many economists believe those jobs are less secure than manufacturing jobs.

States in the U.S. that lost the most jobs included Louisiana, North Dakota, Illinois and Iowa. North Dakota lost almost 19,000 jobs in 2015. Most of those jobs lost in North Dakota were in the energy and mining industries, according to the Associated Press.

I'm Jim Dresbach.

Dora Mekouar wrote this story for VOANews. Jim Dresbach adapted her report for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.

What do you think of the American job outlook? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or visit our 51VOA.COM.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

bureau - n. a government office or agency

statistics - n. the area of mathematics dealing with the collection, study and presentation of numerical information

declined - v. to become worse in condition or quality; to become less in number

retail - adj. of or related to the sale of goods or services

sector - n. an area or part of an economy