By Gay Cororaton, MIAMI REALTORS Chief Economist
Miami-Dade County led the largest 10 counties in terms of employment growth in 2024 Q3, with employment up 1.7% nationally, surpassing the national rate of 0.8%, according to the latest US Census Bureau’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages statistics. [1] Miami-Dade’s County employment growth is starkly ahead (1.&%) of the growth in the other nine largest counties such as Los Angeles County ( 0.9%); New York County (0.8%); and Dallas County (0.4%). In other Sunbelt counties, employment fell: Maricopa County (-0.3%), and San Diego County (-0.3%).
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The construction industry had the fastest employment growth (6.2%) followed by leisure and hospitality (2.5%) and health and education (2.5%). Population growth, migration, and tourism is driving employment in construction, education and health, and leisure and hospitality. Miami-Dade County’s population has been growing in the past two years in 2022 (+0.6%) and in 2023 (0.8%) after a two-year pandemic-induced decline in 2020 (-0.6%) and in 2021 (-0.4%). Miami-Dade County’s population is projected to increase by 0.6% annually in the next 20 years, or a cumulative increase of about 400,000 people, or 20,000 per year.[2] International migration is a major contributor of Miami-Dade’s population growth. Miami-Dade County had led the nation in the number of net international migration (+54,457).[3] Miami-Dade County continues to attract movers from out-of-state, based on driver license exchanges. In 2024, there were 20,909 out-of-state driver license exchanges in Miami-Dade County, up 17% from the pre-pandemic level in 2019, with elevated levels compared to 2019 among movers from New York (+27%), California (+49%), Texas (+21%), New Jersey (+18%), and Illinois (+27%).[4] Passenger arrivals at the Miami International Airport have increased since 2019, with 24 million arrivals in 2024 from 21 million in 2019.[5] Rising population and migration has fueled intense construction activity in Miami-Dade County. Among the largest metro areas, it is undergoing the most robust multifamily construction activity in the nation, with about 25,000 units under construction, equivalent to 20% of the existing stock.
[1] The Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages covers workers who have state and federal unemployment insurance and excludes most self-employed workers, most agricultural workers on small farms, all members of the Armed Forces, elected officials in most states, most employees of railroads, some domestic workers, most student workers at schools, and employees of certain small nonprofit organizations. Large counties are those with employment levels of 75,000 or greater. QCEW data are released about 5 ½ months after the reference quarter.
[2] MediumProjections_2020.pdf
[3] Population and Housing Unit Estimates
[4] 2024-Q4-Report-with-new-logo.pdf
[5] Bureau of Transportation at https://www.transtats.bts.gov/Data_Elements.aspx?Data=1
[6] SEFL-Commercial-Report_2024Q4.pdf
