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Public Information Office	                                   CB01-78
301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax)
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e-mail: pio@census.gov

County Business Patterns Staff
301-457-2580
e-mail: cbp@census.gov


             Maricopa County, Ariz., and Orange County, Calif., 
          Register Country's Biggest Job Gains, Census Bureau Reports


 
  Maricopa County, Ariz., part of the Phoenix-Mesa, Ariz., metropolitan
statistical area, and Orange County, Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles,
showed the highest employment growth in the nation between 1998 and 1999,
according to County Business Patterns, an annual report on business 
activity released today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau.

  Between 1998 and 1999, the number of employees in Maricopa County
increased by 58,800 to a total of 1,305,300, while the number in Orange
County grew to 1,331,000, an increase of 56,900, the publication reported.

  Cook County, Ill., which includes Chicago, was third in job growth,
adding 55,400 more workers, followed by San Diego County, Calif. (54,800),
and Los Angeles County, Calif. (54,200).

  "Nationally, the number of employees in private businesses continued to
increase, from 108 million in 1998 to 111 million in 1999," Census Bureau
analyst Paul Hanczaryk said.

  During 1999, the pay for all private business employees grew by 7.4
percent over 1998 levels, from $3.3 trillion to almost $3.6 trillion.

  The following table shows employee gains for the United States and the
five counties with the largest employee gains from 1998 to 1999:



		         1999	           1998         Employee Gain: 1998-1999	   
County                 Employees         Employees           Number/Percent

United States	      110,705,700	108,117,700          2,587,900 2.4		
Maricopa, Ariz.	        1,305,300	  1,246,400	        58,800 4.7         
Orange, Calif.	        1,331,000	  1,274,100	        56,900 4.5	 
Cook, Ill.	        2,501,500	  2,446,100	        55,400 2.3	
San Diego, Calif.	1,015,800  	    961,000	        54,800 5.7	
Los Angeles, Calif.	3,747,800	  3,693,500	        54,200 1.5	
	

  Gains in the number of employer business establishments for the United
States and the five top counties for the period 1998 to 1999 were:

			 1999		   1998                 Gain
County	             Establishments    Establishments      Number/Percent

United States		7,008,444	  6,941,822	       66,622 1.0
Los Angeles, Calif.       222,513           219,933             2,580 1.2
Clark, Nev.		   28,523	     26,691		1,832 6.9
Maricopa, Ariz.		   70,489	     68,955		1,534 2.2
San Diego, Calif.          65,905            64,413             1,492 2.3
Orange, Calif.		   76,532            75,154             1,378 1.8               


  Gains for the United States and the five counties with the largest gains
in annual payrolls, from 1998 to 1999 were:

                                                                 Gain
County  	        1999 Payroll	    1998 Payroll     Amount/Percent
                         ($billion)          ($billion)        ($billion)

United States		   3,554.7	      3,309.4           245.3   7.4
New York, N.Y.  1/	     133.5              122.5            11.0   9.0
Santa Clara, Calif.	      56.2               47.6	          8.6  18.0
Fairfax, Va.		      27.5               19.9	          7.6  37.9
Los Angeles, Calif.	     130.9              123.8	          7.1   5.8
Cook, Ill.		      97.5               91.5	          6.0   6.6	
1/ Manhattan portion of New York City

  The 1999 County Business Patterns data series uses the North
American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes, which replaced the
Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system, beginning with the 1998
data series. NAICS reflects more accurately and more comprehensively the
growing services-based economy. It includes 1,170 industries, of which 565
are service-based. In contrast, the SIC system covered 1,004 industries,
of which 416 were service-related.

  County Business Patterns data are obtained from Census Bureau reports
and administrative records of other federal agencies. Quality assurance
procedures are applied to all phases of collection, processing and
tabulation to minimize errors. The data are subject to error from
miscoding, estimation for missing or misreported data and difficulties
covering the proper units for the report.

  The data will be available on CD-ROM at a later date. The Census Bureau
will release the report for Puerto Rico later this year.

Selected Data for 50 Counties Having Highest Nonfarm Employment: 1999

Selected Data by States: 1999