By Gay Cororaton, MIAMI REALTORS Chief Economist
Miami-Dade County had the highest employment growth in 2025 Q1 among the nation’s 10 largest counties, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. Employment rose 1.5% in Miami-Dade County, outpacing the 0.4% year-over-year increase nationally.
Read the report HERE.
Among the 10 largest counties, employment rose in six of the ten largest counties: Miami-Dade County, FL (1.5%) , New York County, NY (0.9%), Dallas County, TX (0.6%), Harris County, TX (0.5%), King County, WA (0.3%), and Cook County, IL (0.2%). Employment was unchanged in Maricopa County, AZ. Employment fell Orange County, CA (-0.3%), San Diego, CA (-0.5%), and Los Angeles, CA (-0.5%).
Expanding the coverage to the nation’s 372 largest counties, Loudon County, Virginia had the largest increase (3.4%).
All Southeast Florida counties had faster employment growth compared to nationally (0.4%) led by St. Lucie County (2.1%), followed by Martin County (1.6%), Miami-Dade County (1.5%), Palm Beach County (1.1%), and Broward County (0.5%). Southeast Florida’s sustained employment growth underpins a healthy demand for housing and commercial real estate especially as mortgage rates start to decline, with a high likelihood of a rate cut beginning in September 2025 as the Federal Reserve Board navigates towards avoiding a recession while seeking to keep inflation at 2%.
Construction, education & health services, professional & business services underpin employment growth in Miami-Dade County
Driving the employment growth in Miami-Dade County was the construction industry (+4.3%) which outpaced the national increase (1.0%). Miami-Dade market area is undergoing the most intense construction activity among 90 major markets, with 23,340 units under construction, adding 18% to existing stock (Miami-Dade: Most Multifamily Units Under Construction in the U.S. – MIAMI REALTORS®).
Education and health services had the second fastest employment growth (+2.4%). Underpinning the demand for education and health services is the county’s strong population growth (2.3%) in 2024, outpacing the national population growth (0.98%). Miami-Dade County leads the nation in net international migration and is enjoying a natural increase with more births than deaths, according to the US Census Bureau’s 2024 Population Estimates.
Professional and business services had the third largest employment growth (2.3%), in contrast to the national decline (0.7%). Miami-Dade County has the most robust office commercial real estate market, posting the lowest office vacancy rate of 15.5% among the 25 major office markets ( Miami-is-Hottest-Office-Market-in-April-2025.pdf).
Employment rose in Miami-Dade County except in information services (-4.3%), mirroring the national decline (-3.6%) and in natural resources and mining. The decline in information services jobs (includes media and “tech” jobs) has been attributed to a combination of factors such as the shift in hiring strategy after COVID, reduction in federal funding, and even the rise of AI. (Why tech jobs are still disappearing in 2025 – Technical.ly)
