Each month, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases a monthly Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment Report, which includes the current total number of civilian labor force and unemployment by state and metropolitan area (MSA), as well as the same metrics 12 months prior in order to determine the change in the labor force and unemployment over the past year.

The employment situation in a market is an indication of the demand for real estate. People need jobs to pay living expenses, which includes paying for rent. The more people with jobs in the market, the more potential “customers” for us as apartment investors.

BLS releases a lot of relevant economic data on a month basis, which can be found here. You can also view archived new releases for previous years here.

50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 396 MSAs are included in the data.

Currently, we focus on the Texas and Florida markets for our deals. Here are some interest highlights from their December 2019 report about those two states:

• 10 states added over 100,000 jobs

• #1 was Texas (253,056 jobs) and #2 was Florida (178,978 jobs)

• 31 states had a reduction in unemployment

• 19 markets added over 25,000 jobs

• The #2 market (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington) added more jobs than the total number of jobs added in 40 out of 50 states

• The #10 market (Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford) added more jobs than the total number of jobs added in 34 out of 50 states

• The #19 market (Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater) added more jobs than the total number of jobs added in 26 out of 50 states

• 275 out of 396 markets had a reduction in unemployment

Here is the BLS data for our markets from December 2018 to December 2019