Payrolls across the area grew 1.1% year-over-year, placing Baltimore below the national average of 1.6% and similarly sized metros.
While education and health services being Baltimore’s greatest driver of job growth is not unique (four out of the ten similarly sized metros share this trait), its concentration in the sector is. Education and health services comprised nearly 74% of Baltimore’s net growth in the most recent month. Job growth in peer sized metro areas is considerably more diverse, with no other market’s job growth being more than 50% concentrated in any one sector.
The lack of diversity in job growth has helped to contribute to lagging net absorption in the Baltimore office market. Over the past year, net absorption in the Baltimore metro office market has totaled nearly 400,000 s.f., which is less than half of the long-term annual average of 946,000 s.f.
