St. Louis Overview

Gains in St. Louis jobs are expected to be moderate because the area’s business and real estate markets have yet to rebound fully from the recession.

St. Louis Job Opportunities

Due to the city’s location at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, a number of St. Louis jobs are in transportation and distribution. Other critical hiring sectors for the area’s 1.4 million workers include plant and life sciences, information technology, advanced manufacturing, and financial services.

The trade, transportation and utilities sector accounts for nearly 19 percent of jobs in St. Louis. Education/health services is also a key hiring sector, supported by BJC HealthCare, Washington University in St. Louis and Saint Louis University.

Most sectors have shown recent declines in employment, with the exception of education/health services, professional/business services, manufacturing and other services.

St. Louis Employment Trends

Employment in St. Louis is slowly improving. The city’s unemployment rate, which peaked at 9.7 percent in August 2009, has been below 9 percent since late 2011. St. Louis payrolls, which contracted throughout the recession, exhibited some weak momentum in late 2010. Online hiring was strong through 2011, reaching near prerecession levels.

Between Q2 2012 and Q2 2013, jobs in St. Louis are expected to increase 0.7 percent, below the 1.3 percent growth expected in the US job supply over that time, Moody’s Analytics says.