St. Louis region experiencing record job growth

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - St. Louis as a region is doing better in one metric than it has in three decades.

St. Louis is in the Top 10--- seventh, to be specific -- for job growth. It's the first time for a performance that robust since 1990.

"It is just another sign, something special is happening in this region," said Greater St. Louis Inc. CEO Jason Hall. " As we come together as one metro, one voice, one agenda and stop this internal competition and start bringing more opportunities for everybody in the metro."

Hall tells KMOX's Michael Calhoun that over the past year, strong areas in the region have included Madison County, St. Charles County, and St. Louis City.

"This was a net gain of over 31,000 jobs in the metro. And that's right across our 15 county by state metro," said Hall. "So when we say Saint Louis, that's eight counties in the metro, east of Illinois and seven here on the Missouri side."

Hospitality and manufacturing are the two sectors adding the most jobs.

"Think about some of the drivers of that decisions people made like the Taylor family, bringing St. Louis City SC and soccer, you know, the Cardinals and what the O'Laughlin family has done at Union Station." said Hall. "So many of these other huge attractions people like what we have and they are coming here and you're seeing that show up in job creation."

Job growth is a statistic that often comes out ahead of others like population growth, housing construction, and new store openings.

"I think we weren't competing the way that one competes on the global stage if you're truly serious about bringing more economic activity and opportunities to a region." said Hall. "I think we're getting that recipe right now and we're seeing some signs of positive results."