March 12, 2024
The Greater Philadelphia region has continued recent strong gains in job growth, according to newly released data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Explore job growth data in DVRPC’s Tracking Progress.
Our regional long-range plan, Connections 2050, sets a goal to create more employment in the region, especially high-paying jobs in industries forecast to have future growth, allow for career advancement, and employ residents from all walks of life. The more people who are sustainably employed, the greater the amount and consistency of tax revenue for the region’s governments. This can lead to increased incomes for residents of all backgrounds in the region, which can then increase resources for local governments to use to improve the quality of life for their residents. According to research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, this can lead to a wide variety of improvements in people’s lives and communities, such as reduced crime, decreased segregation when job growth benefits residents of diverse backgrounds, and decreased stress on the health system by enabling residents to spend money on activities that make them happier.
Newly released job growth data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the number of jobs in the region has grown by 25% from 2001 to 2022. In 2022, almost half of all jobs were located in Philadelphia (25%) and Montgomery (19%) counties. With the exceptions of brief declines due to the late 2000’s recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, the region has experienced good job growth over the last few decades.
Most of this job growth has been concentrated among the region’s self-employed proprietors, or individual business owners, who have seen an 120% increase in jobs over the last 21 years, versus the region’s wage and salary earners, who have seen a more modest 11% increase over the same period. This is despite the proprietors' relatively small share of the region’s economy. However, because of their high job growth over the last 21 years, they have gone from making up 13% of the region’s economy in 2001 to 23% in 2022. Most of the region’s growth in proprietary jobs occurred in Philadelphia, which saw a 244% increase in this job type over those 21 years. This growth indicates a rise in entrepreneurial activity and shows that residents are adapting to a fast-changing global economy, both of which point to a stronger regional economy in the future.
Looking at job growth by industry, the health care and social services sector had the largest share of jobs in the region, ranging from 12.2% to 15.2% between 2001 and 2022, with 14.7% in 2022. The finance, insurance, and real estate industry had the largest increase in share of total jobs, rising 3.8% during that time frame. The manufacturing sector had the largest decrease in jobs among all industries, going down by 4% during that time frame. This shows the continuation of the longstanding decline in manufacturing jobs in the region.
These figures show that while the overall number of jobs in the region has continued to increase, the level of growth has differed by job type, industry, and location within the region. The region has shown signs of adaptation to the fast-changing global economy, which can potentially set up the region for future job growth. To see the job growth data further broken down at various regional geographies, go to the “How are we doing?” tab in the Job Growth Indicator.
Since no single indicator can give a full picture on the region’s progress toward obtaining the vision outlined in the Long-Range Plan, find more information on how our region’s communities are evolving from these related Tracking Progress indicators: Income, Labor Force, Community Integration, Business Formation, and Gross Domestic Product, among others. Download the data for your own use through DVRPC’s Data Catalog, accessed by a link under each chart.