While Ft. Worth and Tarrant County have grown steadily in population over the years, from a jobs perspective Tarrant County is essentially another suburb of Dallas.
The job growth in Dallas-Plano-Irving Metro is huge in comparison to Ft. Worth-Arlington Metro ... the job growth gap has been getting even wider ... TAMU just released year-over-year numbers for August that show Dallas Metro is up 3.9% in annual job growth and Ft. Worth Metro at 1.7%.
In fact, the Dallas-Plano-Irving Metro easily leads the entire state in job growth (2nd place Houston-Woodlands-Sugarland MSA is 2.7%). Further, the Dallas Metro holds a huge 21.3% of total jobs in Texas vs 8.4% for Ft. Worth Metro.
Tarrant has a significant percentage of its workforce population commuting into Dallas proper and the Dallas region in general for their livelihoods.
When the Uptown District of Downtown Dallas alone has a much larger square footage of office space than the entirety of Downtown Ft. Worth that alone screams what is going on.
TAMU report:
https://www.recenter.tamu.edu/articles/technical-report/monthly-review-of-the-texas-economy------------------------------------------------------
Long commute: Why so many people choose to live in Fort Worth but work in Dallasby Gordon Dickson, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, October 3, 2019
Grant Senter has a terrific job with a startup health care firm in Dallas, and yet he chooses to live in Fort Worth.
Each day, he spends three hours commuting, making the 43-mile trip to and from his home near Eagle Mountain Lake.
“We lived in Dallas for a year, and hated it. I like to say Dallas is like LA without the beach,” said Senter, 27, who has lived in Fort Worth for four years.
...
Nearly 16% of Tarrant County workers commute each day to Dallas, Census Bureau data shows.
From 2012-16, there were 934,000 workers in Tarrant County, according to the most recent Census American Community Survey results available. Of those,
146,360 workers commuted to Dallas County for their jobs, and
an additional 8,100 commuted to neighboring Collin County.
But
Dallas doesn’t reciprocate.
Only 6 percent of Dallas County workers come to Tarrant County for their jobs, Census Bureau data shows.
...
But
Fort Worth-area leaders say the daytime migration of the work force into Dallas County and, to a lesser degree, neighboring Collin County,
is an alarming trend.
A December 2017 Economic Development Strategic Plan warned that
Fort Worth was at risk of becoming a “suburb of Dallas” because Fort Worth didn’t have enough high-paying jobs.
Other Tarrant County cities such as Arlington, Grapevine and Keller are in a similar situation, with many of their residents heading east to work each day.
“We’re still somewhat overshadowed by the Dallas region,” said Robert Sturns, Fort Worth economic development director.
...
But a large number of Fort Worth residents — nearly 192,000 people — still leaves the city for work, Census data shows. Between 2005-14,
the percentage of commuters leaving Fort Worth jumped from 53 percent to 62 percent.
...
The TRE trains are full of Tarrant County residents who make the daily trek to Dallas, Babbili said.
“When I’m going back home (in the afternoons), there are hardly any seats available,” he said. “Sometimes I have to stand.”
...
Full article:
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/business/growth/article235435372.html