Over the last five years, Northern Kentucky has been a major economic driver for the Greater Cincinnati metropolitan statistical area (MSA), accounting for more than 60% of the employment growth within the MSA, despite representing just 20% of the population. Further, based on Chmura’s JobsEQ labor market analytics, the four-quarter moving average of employment grew by 9.2% in Northern Kentucky versus 2.7% in the Cincinnati MSA.
According to a recent regional labor market report issued by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber’s Center for Research & Data, Northern Kentucky is also home to many of the largest and fastest-growing employment centers in the region. Based on 2023 employment by zip code, Florence and Hebron ranked as the #2 and #7 largest employment centers in the Cincinnati MSA in terms of overall employment. Of the approximately 150 zip codes that make up the Cincinnati MSA, 5 of the top 10 zip codes in terms of 5-year absolute employment growth are in the Northern Kentucky region, with Hebron (41048), Walton (41094) and Florence (41042) accounting for three of the top five.
Driven by key investments from companies like Amazon, DHL, ZEISS and Ancra Cargo between 2018 and 2023, zip code 41048 (Hebron) grew by 6,054 jobs, or 35.6%, which was more than twice the second-largest growing zip code in the Cincinnati MSA. The other zip codes from the Northern Kentucky region that ranked in the top 10 were: #7 Erlanger, (41018) and #10 Covington (41011).
Data for the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber’s report was sourced from the Lightcast labor market analytics platform.
