The Mountain region was the top-performing area in the month of October, while Washington state leapfrogged Texas to become the No. 1 ranked state in the index.
It should be noted however that Dallas retained the title of top metro area.
New England was the only region that showed a positive one-month and overall 12-month growth rate. It assumed that this is fueled by the Boston metro and Massachusetts.
With the lowest 12-month growth rate (-2.12 percent), the rate of employment growth has declined seven consecutive months in the West North Central. The West North Central, along with the Middle Atlantic it is reported, are the only regions with an index below 100.
This is down 0.56 percent, East South Central had the lowest one-month growth rate among regions, as its index fell to a three-year low according to the report.
Services excluding public administration industry, a category that includes a wide range of jobs including repair and laundry services, hit a record reading of 104.21 in October and outpaced other sectors by a very wide margin.
Small business job growth slowed the most in the following states:
- Tennessee
- North Carolina
- Michigan
At 100.95, Wisconsin improved in October and had the best 12-month growth rate among states at 0.60 percent.
