Buffalo has statistically fallen at the bottom of the national rankings for job growth for many years, but not any more. Not only has the city created more New York jobs than a good portion of the larger metro areas in the state; it has also out performed 15 major Florida metros in creation of new jobs last year. In the past, Florida job growth has caused many of the state’s cities to make it to the to top of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ list of best area’s for employment.

Over the last year, Florida has been relatively hard by the nationwide real estate crisis. With fewer individuals finding themselves able to purchase new properties and bank foreclosures at a record high, real estate values are falling. This has taken its toll on Florida job growth, making it harder for the state to compete for having a better employment situation.

Buffalo, which consists of Erie and Niagara counties, was responsible for the creation of approximately 2,500 New York jobs from January 2007 to January 2008. This increase in employment helped the city take the 101st spot on the list of 310 U.S. metros with the best raw job growth.

Also helping New York job growth make the list was the worsening conditions that have hampered Florida job growth. Overall, eight Florida metros lost jobs last year and another seven were unable to create more new employment opportunities than Buffalo managed. Suffering the most Florida jobs lost were the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, which lost 11,700 jobs, Bradenton-Sarasota, which saw a decrease of 11,100 jobs, and Cape Coral-Fort Myers, which was down 10,800 jobs.

Topping the list for the greatest increase in available jobs nationwide was Houston, Texas, which saw an increase of 95,300 new employment opportunities during the course of the last 12 months. Following Houston, was Dallas, which created 83,500 new jobs. The remaining cities that filled the list’s top five positions were New York city, with 77,400 new jobs, Seattle, where employment was up by 47,600 new positions, and Atlanta, which created 35,600 new jobs.

Detroit topped the list of cities that lost the most jobs over the course of last year with a decrease of 29,700 available positions. Los Angeles, which lost 17,100 jobs, was runner up for the unwanted first spot. Rounding out the top five were the three above mentioned cities which were responsible for the most Florida jobs lost.

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