2025 County Job Growth Results: NYC, Houston, Tampa, and Austin Lead Among Large Counties
Headlight Data’s 2025 job growth calculations are now available in our Annual Economic Scorecard, showing a slight majority (52%) of all 3,000+ US counties with positive growth in 2025 (Note: employment in the US grew just 0.4%). Data comes from the BLS’ Covered Employment data series, which is based on quarterly payroll filings from all US businesses (and is not a statistical survey like the monthly employment estimates that are published with a two-month lag).
A notable pattern emerges on the map: nearly every state shows a patchwork of expanding and contracting counties. This mix bodes well to provide a stable state economy and to create opportunities for workers to find jobs in nearby counties.
In addition, we can look at the industries that support growth across all US counties. For example, 70% of counties enjoyed positive growth in Health Services and Education (Private), and 60% of counties saw Construction growth. These two industries were the two fastest growing in the US in 2025, providing an injection of new jobs for essentially two-thirds of the geographic area of the US – not just in major metros.
By contrast, Manufacturing and Professional/Business Services lost the most jobs in 2025. Still, 37% of counties saw Manufacturing increases and 48% of counties saw Prof/Biz Services increases – producing wide variations in performance across counties.
We also examine data by population levels, sorting fastest-growing counties by size. Larger counties were more likely to grow in 2025: Two-thirds (66%) of both large and mid-sized counties grew in 2025, but 61% of small counties grew and just 47% of micro counties grew. See below for our population range for each size.
Among large counties, Bronx County, NY (NYC) grew the fastest in 2025 at 6.2% - an impressive number for a population of 1.4 million people. Fort Bend County, TX (Houston) followed with 3.8% growth and Pasco County, FL (Tampa) grew 3.5%. Montgomery County, TX (Houston) and Travis County, TX (Austin) grew more than 3.0%.
Among mid-sized counties, Johnston County, NC (Raleigh) grew the fastest at 7.4%, Union County, NC (Charlotte) grew 5.2%, and Berkeley County, SC (Charleston) grew 4.9%.
In our accompanying Annual Economic Scorecard, we provide a one-page profile on every county in the US, showcasing growth trends and rankings as shown below:
*Size ranges: Micro counties have less than 50,000 population; small counties have 50k up to 200k; mid-sized counties have 200k up to 500k; large counties have 500k or more.