In a year that saw a decline of 1.18 million jobs, Houston had the best year of any market in 2008, picking up an additional 57,300 jobs. In this study, Texas dominated the small list of markets that added jobs. Rounding out the top five with Houston were Dallas-Fort Worth (up 43,300 jobs), San Antonio (up 14,900), Washington, D.C. (up 11,800), and Austin (up 9,600).

Houston had the best year of any market, picking up an additional 57,300 jobs, according to a new bizjournals analysis.

The study focused on the 88 U.S. markets that have at least 250,000 non-farm jobs. They collectively had 90.42 million jobs in December 2008, compared to 91.60 million at the end of 2007. That equaled a decline of 1.18 million.

Seventy-two of the markets suffered declines in employment in 2008. The New York City area took the worst hit in absolute terms, losing 120,300 positions.

Four other markets lost more than 75,000 jobs each: Detroit (down 89,700), Phoenix (down 86,800), Los Angeles (down 82,900) and Atlanta (down 82,000).

Texas dominated the small list of markets that added jobs last year, nailing down the top three positions, and four of the top five.

Rounding out the top five were Dallas-Fort Worth (up 43,300 jobs), San Antonio (up 14,900), Washington, D.C. (up 11,800), and Austin (up 9,600).

Meanwhile, the nation’s major labor markets lost nearly 1.2 million jobs last year, according to the analysis.

Here are the only 15 markets from the survey that saw job gains, ranked in order of raw employment growth between December 2007 and December 2008:

1. Houston, up 57,300 jobs
2. Dallas-Fort Worth, up 43,300 jobs
3. San Antonio, up 14,900 jobs
4. Washington, up 11,800 jobs
5. Austin, up 9,600 jobs
6. Virginia Beach-Norfolk, up 7,700 jobs
7. New Orleans, up 6,600 jobs
8. Oklahoma City, up 5,800 jobs
9. El Paso, up 5,300 jobs
10. Baton Rouge, up 4,000 jobs
11. Durham, N.C., up 1,700 jobs
12. Omaha, up 600 jobs
13. Greensboro, up 500 jobs
14. Tulsa, up 400 jobs
15. Raleigh, up 200 jobs
15. Seattle, up 200 jobs

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