Newcomers to the Dallas-Fort Worth area have good reason to be excited about job prospects and opportunities. While the recession has no doubt affected all parts of the U.S. some areas have fared better than others – and the Dallas/Fort Worth area is certainly one of them.
The area’s positive business environment low taxes solid infrastructure plethora of large corporations hungry for talented employees affordable housing and quality of life have all combined to make the metroplex a desirable place to live and work.
Consider that in 2009 two years after the recession started the national unemployment rate had jumped to 10.2 percent – the highest in 26 years – and much of that was long-term unemployment of six months or more. And that according to the Brookings Institution’s MetroMonitor report which tracks economic recession and recovery 63 of the 100 largest metro areas “lost a greater share of jobs eight quarters after the start of the “Great Recession” (the fourth quarter of 2007) than they did during the first eight quarters after the start of any of the previous three national recessions.”
However while the DFW area was certainly affected during that time in terms of the area’s overall performance and recovery in the wake of the recession – including employment change unemployment rate gross metropolitan product (GMP) and housing prices – the Dallas/Fort Worth area ranked as one of the 20 strongest performing metro areas.
