Robert,
I agree it seems to be a bug. Here is a one workaround:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1, user-scalable=no">
<title>Labeling features client-side</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://community.esri.com//js.arcgis.com/3.15/esri/css/esri.css">
<style>
html, body, #map {
height: 100%; width: 100%; margin: 0; padding: 0;
}
</style>
<script src="//js.arcgis.com/3.15/"></script>
<script>
var map;
require([
"esri/map",
"esri/geometry/Extent",
"esri/layers/FeatureLayer",
"esri/symbols/SimpleLineSymbol",
"esri/symbols/SimpleFillSymbol",
"esri/symbols/TextSymbol",
"esri/renderers/SimpleRenderer",
"esri/layers/LabelLayer",
"esri/Color",
"dojo/domReady!"
], function(Map, Extent, FeatureLayer,
SimpleLineSymbol, SimpleFillSymbol,
TextSymbol, SimpleRenderer, LabelLayer, Color)
{
// load the map centered on the United States
var bbox = new Extent({"xmin": -1940058, "ymin": -814715, "xmax": 1683105, "ymax": 1446096, "spatialReference": {"wkid": 102003}});
//create the map and set the extent, making sure to "showLabels"
map = new Map("map", {
extent: bbox,
showLabels : true //very important that this must be set to true!
});
// create a renderer for the states layer to override default symbology
var statesColor = new Color("#666");
var statesLine = new SimpleLineSymbol("solid", statesColor, 1.5);
var statesSymbol = new SimpleFillSymbol("solid", statesLine, null);
var statesRenderer = new SimpleRenderer(statesSymbol);
// create the feature layer to render and label
var statesUrl = "http://sampleserver6.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services/Census/MapServer/3";
var states = new FeatureLayer(statesUrl, {
id: "states",
outFields: ["*"]
});
states.setRenderer(statesRenderer);
var usaLblLayer = new FeatureLayer("http://sampleserver6.arcgisonline.com/arcgis/rest/services/Census/MapServer/3", {
id: "us_states_lbl",
opacity: 0.7,
visible: true,
outFields: ["*"]
});
usaLblLayer.setDefinitionExpression("STATE_NAME = 'Texas'");
usaLblLayer.setRenderer(statesRenderer);
map.addLayer(usaLblLayer);
var statesLabel = new TextSymbol().setColor(new Color("#ff0000"));
statesLabel.font.setSize("14pt");
statesLabel.font.setFamily("arial");
var renderer = new SimpleRenderer(statesLabel);
var labelLayer = new LabelLayer({ id: "labels" });
labelLayer.addFeatureLayer(usaLblLayer, renderer, "{STATE_NAME}");
map.addLayer(labelLayer);
map.addLayer(states);
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="map"></div>
</body>
</html>
