Here is why the DFW job market continues to sizzle

Even as the national economy and the financial markets gyrate, the Dallas-Fort Worth jobs market remains hot.

New, expanding and relocating businesses added 98,900 new jobs last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That ranked North Texas behind New York City with 156,400 new jobs and Los Angeles with 135,100 new jobs in 2015, and also lagged the record 140,000 employment growth that Dallas-Fort Worth posted in 2014. But it still landed the region in an enviable position, especially considering that DFW’s ratio of 252 jobs per 100,000 residents surpasses the ratio in New York and Los Angeles, said Ian Siegel, CEO of Santa Monica, California-based ZipRecruiter.

In this interview, Siegel shared with me his observations on the Dallas jobs market, based on the 400,000 companies using ZipRecruiter, 8.2 million jobs posted in 2015 alone, and a database of more than 6 million resumes.

Why is Dallas attractive for corporate relocations? It has a low unemployment rate of 3.7 percent. The city also has a high volume of jobs, a high ratio of jobs per candidate and high number of available jobs to population – 252 jobs per 100,000 residents. That ratio is greater than New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta and Miami. Dallas also has a substantially lower cost of living, ranking 24th out of the 26 most expensive cities for housing costs

Is Dallas gaining or losing momentum in terms of jobs growth? ZipRecruiter’s data tells us Dallas is right on track for hiring growth this year, with 2016 job posting activity up 38 percent over the end of last year. It’s still early, but everything we see indicates an upward trajectory or, at the very least, a stable hiring picture. For example, in 2015, people moved and filled 8,000 IT jobs, 6,800 sales jobs, 5,600 healthcare jobs, 5,100 manufacturing jobs and 5,000 construction jobs.

What differentiates the Dallas jobs market? Dallas’ jobs market can be defined in one word: Diversification. When you have job growth in multiple industries, such as health care, IT, and finance, combined with a construction boom creating campus-like developments for Facebook and other tech companies, you’re in the middle of a virtuous cycle many cities desire.

See the full article at The Dallas Business Journal.