DFW by the Big Booming Numbers

By Mike Rosa, Senior Vice President of Economic Development

No region in the U.S. has added as many jobs as DFW in the past three years. If it was a ball game, it would be called early on a run rule.

From July 2019 through July 2022—the latest data available—our region added 341,000 jobs. Next is Phoenix with 148,000 new jobs, and third is Atlanta with 145,000. Both of those combine for a gain of 293,000 jobs, still nearly 50,000 jobs short of DFW’s growth. Houston ranks fourth with 113,000 new jobs, and Miami is fifth with 104,000.

Our region also leads all major U.S. markets with 107.5 percent of jobs that existed when the pandemic began. Like all regions, we lost a significant number of jobs but began to recover and then fully recovered faster than anywhere else.

We had a lot going for us three years ago and enjoyed an economic tailwind to push us through an incredibly challenging time. There are many reasons we’ve emerged a winner, and can continue to win:

      • We’re still Dallas, DFW, and Texas. The base set of compelling location advantages remain and are likely enhanced like our central location, great transportation and access, and critical mass of all the things companies and people need to succeed.
      • Talent is one of those advantages, and DFW’s population growth and in-migration is attractive to companies. So are our K-12 systems, our community colleges, and our outstanding research universities.
      • As companies reimagine their office environments and needs, DFW’s real estate market can respond and evolve to desired solutions. We have multiple, varied, and new solutions.
      • Dallas’ tech brand has elevated the past few years and more technology companies will be drawn here, complementing our headquarters and financial service brands.
      • More financial services companies will favor DFW over taxing conditions elsewhere.
      • Companies concerned about density or decay issues and deteriorating fiscal conditions in high cost, crowded locations will view DFW favorably and as a better place to be long term.
      • DFW will appeal to manufacturers and distributors seeking to reposition production and supply chains closer to top markets.
      • We feature companies and clusters in biotech, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, fintech, cybersecurity, gaming, artificial intelligence, big data, and blockchain. DFW is a capable and convergent location for new sectors to locate and expand, especially considering the scale of our existing tech ecosystem.
      • DFW is well positioned as a location for electric vehicle and related companies, considering the strong auto and aircraft sector here and in Texas.
      • Texas is now known for business two-steps. Companies have a presence here and then migrate more or even a headquarters here. McKesson, Charles Schwab, Jacobs, and Caterpillar are recent examples. Expect more companies with a strong corporate presence in DFW and Texas to consider a shift of headquarters here if currently located in difficult business climates.

There are at least 176 companies that would attest to all or part of this list. That’s the number of corporate locations and expansions announced in DFW since March 2020, according to the DRC’s research, tracking, and recruitment of projects.

These include large projects like Texas Instruments’ plans to build semiconductors in Sherman, to the Fortune 500 headquarters moves by CBRE and AECOM to Dallas and Caterpillar to Irving, to smaller but impactful tech projects like MP Materials locating a rare earth magnets manufacturing plant in Fort Worth.

All these projects report 47,600 total jobs. And they will occupy over 27 million square feet of space.

Among the 176 are 57 corporate relocations; others are new locations or expansions.

Those 57 relocations are from a lot of places. It’s no surprise that many moves — 23 in fact — were from California. But 34 moves came elsewhere: New York, Illinois, and 12 other states and five countries.

It’s also interesting to look at the 176 total projects to see where they’ve landed in DFW.

Thirty three cities in DFW landed at least one corporate location or expansion since March 2020.  More than half of those, 18, had multiple corporate announcements. Far and wide across our region.

We also have hotspots. Dallas (36), Fort Worth (26), Irving (16), Plano (15), Frisco (8),and Lancaster (6) were home to the most announcements.

These are my favorite of all our incredible numbers over the past three years. It’s a testament to the health and diversity of the cities in our region. It’s also a reflection of the good economic development work being done in our cities. The DRC team enjoys working with regional cities to market our region and bring great companies and jobs here.

The Dallas Region is poised for prosperity now and into the future. Take a deep dive inside the region’s economy, business climate, innovation, real estate, and more here.