Benchmark
All Fed Districts Are Equal? Not When It Comes to Job Growth
District size matters, if data from San Francisco to Minneapolis are any guide
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When John Williams spoke about employment last month, the San Francisco Fed president proclaimed the return of "groovy times." He sees joblessness in the U.S. coming down to about 4.5 percent this year in a sign that the labor market has fully recovered from the Great Recession and its aftermath.
He has reason to be optimistic. In his district, payrolls have increased more than 5 percent in the past two years, about 1 percentage point more than at the national level, according to data compiled by the Dallas Fed. San Francisco is also the Fed's biggest district — home to almost one in five jobs in the U.S. at the end of 2015.