In the first half of 2013, the Wilmington Metro area demonstrated stronger employment and industry growth than most other metropolitan areas in North Carolina, according to a new report from Garner Economics LLC, an Atlanta-based economic development research and consulting firm.

Wilmington metro area’s job growth, tied with that of Greenville, N.C. and Jacksonville, N.C., registered at 2.3 percent for the period of January-July, 2013. The three metro areas’ growth rates ranked below those of Asheville (3.5 percent) and Charlotte (2.6 percent), but ahead of the remaining metro areas in the state.

In its just-released report, So Where Are the Jobs Coming From? A progress report on employment growth by industry sector, Garner research economist Tom Tveidt presents an analysis of the job data from all U.S. metropolitan areas and identifies the industry sectors and how they are performing in each metropolitan area.

Tveidt stated in the report that nearly 84 percent of all U.S. metros have added jobs through the first seven months of 2013.This, he said, is the continuation of a positive trend beginning in early 2012 with more than three-quarters of all metros experiencing increasing employment totals.

To determine which sectors are adding and losing jobs, the firm examined changes across 10 major industry sectors for each U.S. metro area, as tracked by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. What researchers found is that job growth and shrinkage was tied to no particular sectors.

What follows is a list, drawn from the report, of each North Carolina metropolitan area and how it performed in terms of job growth in the study period. The sector or sectors doing the most new hiring follows each growth rate percentage.

Asheville: 3.5 percent (leisure and hospitality)
Charlotte: 2.6 percent (professional and business services, wholesale trade, government)
Wilmington: 2.3 percent (leisure and hospitality, private education and health services, financial activities)
Greenville: 2.3 percent (government, leisure and hospitality, manufacturing)
Jacksonville: 2.3 percent (construction)
Raleigh-Cary: 1.5 percent (manufacturing, information, wholesale trade)
Fayetteville: .7 percent (retail)
Goldsboro: .7 percent
Winston-Salem: .6 percent (leisure and hospitality)
Hickory: .5 percent
Greensboro-High Point: .3 percent (retail)
Rocky Mount: -1.5 percent (professional and business services)

Garner Economics charted the 20 metropolitan areas that logged the most job growth. Midland and Odessa, Texas scored highest, but one North Carolina metro area – Asheville – was on the list at number 18.

To read the complete report, click here.