Mon, October 18, 2010
Milken Institute Rates Cities Where Jobs Are Created and Sustained
Looking for cities leading the way in job creation and economic growth? The Milken Institutes's report "Best-Performing Cities 2010" identifies the leading areas in a ranking of 379 metros, divided into large (>200,000) and small (< 200,000) population metropolitan areas. Texas came out far ahead among the states this year, with Lone Star State cities filling 11 of the top 25 slots among large-population areas.
The Santa Monica-based Milken Institute, an economic think tank, issued its findings last week in its seventh annual economic ranking of American cities. Metro areas in Texas benefitted from relatively low reliance on durable goods manufacturing, the state’s aggressive courting of new employers, and a high level of trade with Mexico and South America - areas where trade declines were not as severe as in other parts of the world.
With the exception of North Carolina, no other state had more than one metropolitan area in the top 25 large-cities listing; 21 of these slots went to cities in the southern US. The top ten were:
1. Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, TX
2. Austin-Round Rock, TX
3. Huntsville, AL
4. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX
5. Kennewick-Richland-Pasco, WA
6. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
7. Raleigh-Cary, NC
8. Anchorage, AK
9. El Paso, TX
10. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX
New England had only one metro area in the top 25: the Cambridge-Newton-Framingham MSA was ranked at #22, moving up an impressive 23 slots vs. last year in the ranking among large metros. Its gains were attributed to growth in health care, defense, high-tech, and financial firms. Looking more closely at the large-city ranking, Boston-Quincy is at 42 (up from 61) and Peabody, MA is at 75 (up from 111). Among the remaining New England cities in the top 100, Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT and Manchester-Nashua, NH declined in the rankings, while Norwich-New London, CT moved up slightly from #94 last year to #91.
The performance index ranks metropolitan areas on the basis of outcomes, focusing on concentrations of technology-based industries and growth in employment. This year’s report is especially significant, as it shows how different areas fared during the Great Recession and illustrates the unevenness of the downturn’s impact.