North Texas bucks national trend, gains jobs during pandemic

North Texas has actually gained jobs during the course of the pandemic, something uncommon among major U.S. cities.

Why it matters: Dallas, Fort Worth and the Austin area are outliers in job growth. Of the largest 100 metro areas, 88 had fewer jobs in October than before the pandemic, according to data from the New York Fed.

• Most cities lag the nation's labor market recovery, Axios data viz experts Dani Alberti, Jacque Schrag and Baidi Wang report in the graphic above.

By the numbers: Austin and Round Rock led cities that gained jobs.

• Dallas-Plano-Irving rank fourth nationwide in job gains with a 2.2% increase.
• Fort Worth-Arlington ranks 10th with less than 1% increase.

Bottom line: There are many ways to measure how the North Texas economy is faring, but job growth and a declining unemployment rate show is doing better than most U.S. cities.