New Geography

Tag: Best Cities 2014

  • Small Cities Manufacturing Jobs – 2014 Best Cities Rankings

    View the Best Cities for Manufacturing Jobs 2014 List

    2014  Mfg Rank – Small MSAs Area 2014 Weighted Manufacturing INDEX 2013 Mfg Employment (1000s) Mfg Growth 2012-2013 2014 Mfg Rank Change from 2013 – Small MSAs
    1 Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL 98.8            9.5 7.1% 2
    2 Lewiston, ID-WA 98.0            3.9 8.3% 95
    3 Madera-Chowchilla, CA 97.3            4.0 6.3% 18
    4 Elkhart-Goshen, IN 97.2          54.6 5.0% 57
    5 Idaho Falls, ID 93.4            3.7 4.7% 20
    6 Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA 91.9            2.5 4.2% 4
    7 Naples-Marco Island, FL 91.7            3.2 13.1% 77
    8 Fond du Lac, WI 89.3          11.0 5.4% 12
    9 Coeur d’Alene, ID 89.2            4.9 8.1% 41
    10 Flagstaff, AZ 88.5            4.4 3.1% (4)
    11 Bremerton-Silverdale, WA 88.2            2.1 5.0% 15
    12 Midland, TX 88.1            3.7 2.8% (5)
    13 Columbus, IN 87.9          18.0 2.3% (12)
    14 Medford, OR 87.8            7.2 4.4% 63
    15 Fairbanks, AK 87.2            0.6 12.5% 159
    16 Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA 87.0            5.6 6.3% 35
    17 Napa, CA 86.4          11.7 6.0% (10)
    18 Panama City-Lynn Haven-Panama City Beach, FL 85.8            3.6 4.9% (7)
    19 Prescott, AZ 84.8            3.2 6.7% 73
    20 Morgantown, WV 84.0            4.4 4.0% 30
    21 Battle Creek, MI 81.6          12.1 6.2% 16
    22 Holland-Grand Haven, MI 81.4          34.6 4.2% 1
    23 Pueblo, CO 81.2            4.4 8.1% 91
    24 Auburn-Opelika, AL 80.4            6.2 8.1% 123
    25 Jackson, MI 80.1            9.2 4.5% 6
    26 Muskegon-Norton Shores, MI 79.6          12.7 1.9% (18)
    27 Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury, MA-NH  NECTA Div 79.4          10.7 3.2% 19
    28 Kennewick-Pasco-Richland, WA 78.7            7.0 2.9% (26)
    29 Punta Gorda, FL 78.3            0.7 0.0% (17)
    30 San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA 77.4            6.5 0.5% (2)
    31 Portsmouth, NH-ME NECTA 76.9            3.7 4.8% 9
    32 Merced, CA 76.2            8.8 7.3% 21
    33 Kokomo, IN 76.0          11.5 5.5% 85
    34 Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA 75.0            5.9 3.5% 28
    35 Elizabethtown, KY 74.8            6.2 1.6% (25)
    36 Vallejo-Fairfield, CA 74.2          10.2 2.3% 8
    37 Sioux Falls, SD 73.6          13.4 1.0% (11)
    38 Fargo, ND-MN 73.3          10.1 1.3% (16)
    39 Dover, DE 72.3            4.8 3.6% 26
    40 Port St. Lucie, FL 71.1            5.5 1.2% 49
    41 Cleveland, TN 71.1            8.6 1.6% (8)
    42 Odessa, TX 71.1            5.3 -2.5% (39)
    43 Racine, WI 70.8          18.7 1.1% (20)
    44 Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA 70.5          17.5 -0.2% (30)
    45 Logan, UT-ID 70.1          11.1 0.9% 11
    46 Kankakee-Bradley, IL 69.4            5.5 0.0% (10)
    47 Bellingham, WA 69.1            8.9 -1.1% (13)
    48 Fort Collins-Loveland, CO 68.9          11.8 1.4% (8)
    49 Lima, OH 68.9            8.3 2.9% 71
    50 Greeley, CO 68.4          11.5 1.5% 4
    51 Sandusky, OH 68.1            6.1 2.2% (5)
    52 Spartanburg, SC 68.0          26.0 3.2% (18)
    53 Amarillo, TX 67.9          13.4 1.0% 28
    54 Rapid City, SD 67.1            2.9 7.4% 7
    55 Visalia-Porterville, CA 66.9          11.6 0.6% (38)
    56 Ithaca, NY 66.8            3.4 3.0% 15
    57 El Centro, CA 66.8            2.5 4.1% (27)
    58 Lafayette, IN 66.3          16.3 0.6% (41)
    59 Lake Charles, LA 65.7            9.0 1.5% 15
    60 Lawton, OK 65.6            3.6 2.9% 38
    61 Chico, CA 65.5            3.6 -2.7% Not Rated
    62 Rockford, IL 65.3          31.3 -3.0% (47)
    63 Appleton, WI 64.5          22.9 0.4% (25)
    64 Bay City, MI 64.3            4.2 3.3% (20)
    65 Longview, WA 64.1            6.3 1.6% 27
    66 Saginaw-Saginaw Township North, MI 63.9          11.8 2.3% (25)
    67 Olympia, WA 63.9            3.2 2.1% 65
    68 Anderson, SC 63.5          12.5 2.5% (2)
    69 Yakima, WA 63.3            8.1 1.7% 37
    70 Bloomington, IN 63.2            9.2 -2.1% (31)
    71 Sheboygan, WI 63.0          19.5 3.7% 94
    72 Rochester-Dover, NH-ME NECTA 62.6            6.1 1.7% 59
    73 Victoria, TX 62.5            6.0 -1.1% (31)
    74 Niles-Benton Harbor, MI 62.5          12.3 3.4% 28
    75 Tuscaloosa, AL 62.3          13.4 1.0% 7
    76 Bowling Green, KY 61.9            8.6 0.4% (3)
    77 Anderson, IN 61.9            3.9 3.5% (19)
    78 College Station-Bryan, TX 61.9            5.4 0.0% (59)
    79 Yuba City, CA 61.8            2.1 0.0% (12)
    80 Grand Junction, CO 60.8            2.8 3.8% 28
    81 Charleston, WV 59.9            5.7 4.3% 28
    82 Monroe, MI 59.6            5.3 2.6% (8)
    83 Lebanon, PA 59.4            9.0 -0.4% 33
    84 Greenville, NC 59.1            6.9 -0.5% (79)
    85 Grand Forks, ND-MN 58.4            3.5 1.9% 10
    86 Bend, OR 58.3            4.1 2.5% 63
    87 Waco, TX 58.2          14.6 0.0% (33)
    88 La Crosse, WI-MN 57.8            8.5 0.0% 71
    89 Eau Claire, WI 57.4          10.4 -0.6% (41)
    90 Sioux City, IA-NE-SD 57.3          12.5 2.2% (15)
    91 Terre Haute, IN 56.2          11.4 -0.6% (23)
    92 Abilene, TX 55.7            2.7 0.0% 76
    93 Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton, MA  NECTA Div 55.2            7.5 2.8% 91
    94 Norwich-New London, CT-RI NECTA 55.1          14.6 1.9% 33
    95 Springfield, OH 54.6            6.5 3.7% (82)
    96 Kalamazoo-Portage, MI 54.3          19.4 3.0% 0
    97 Barnstable Town, MA NECTA 53.0            2.9 0.0% (15)
    98 Vineland-Millville-Bridgeton, NJ 52.4            8.3 0.8% 1
    99 Erie, PA 52.3          22.2 -1.0% (67)
    100 St. George, UT 52.3            2.5 -2.6% (10)
    101 Decatur, AL 51.6          12.1 2.2% 36
    102 Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, MA-NH  NECTA Div 51.5          17.5 1.0% (16)
    103 Ocala, FL 50.8            6.8 0.0% 54
    104 Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH 50.2            8.9 0.0% 9
    105 Yuma, AZ 49.2            2.1 -3.0% (4)
    106 Cedar Rapids, IA 49.2          20.2 -0.5% 24
    107 Sebastian-Vero Beach, FL 48.9            1.8 5.9% 71
    108 Pascagoula, MS 48.2          13.8 1.7% 81
    109 Gainesville, FL 47.8            4.5 0.7% 60
    110 Lubbock, TX 47.6            4.9 -1.4% (51)
    111 Bloomington-Normal, IL 47.4            4.4 1.5% (33)
    112 Salem, OR 47.1          11.1 1.8% 49
    113 South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI 46.8          16.8 0.6% 13
    114 Bismarck, ND 46.8            1.9 9.6% 82
    115 Salinas, CA 46.7            5.4 5.2% 47
    116 Owensboro, KY 46.5            8.3 0.0% (13)
    117 Duluth, MN-WI 45.9            7.3 -1.4% 7
    118 Morristown, TN 45.2          10.8 3.8% 35
    119 St. Cloud, MN 44.9          14.8 -0.7% 3
    120 Gadsden, AL 44.4            4.9 -2.0% (32)
    121 Topeka, KS 43.6            7.0 -3.7% (38)
    122 Casper, WY 43.4            1.8 -3.6% (65)
    123 Monroe, LA 42.9            6.7 0.5% (19)
    124 Pittsfield, MA NECTA 42.7            3.2 1.1% (31)
    125 Carson City, NV 42.3            2.6 1.3% 10
    126 Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ 41.6            2.8 1.2% 19
    127 State College, PA 41.3            4.0 -0.8% (27)
    128 Rocky Mount, NC 41.1            8.0 5.7% 23
    129 Janesville, WI 41.1            9.0 1.1% 9
    130 Lynchburg, VA 40.6          14.6 -0.2% 1
    131 Santa Fe, NM 40.4            0.8 0.0% (21)
    132 Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, TX 40.3            7.2 0.0% 8
    133 Eugene-Springfield, OR 39.6          12.6 2.4% 59
    134 Utica-Rome, NY 38.9          11.0 0.0% (16)
    135 Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC 38.8          37.8 1.3% 9
    136 Redding, CA 38.4            2.2 3.2% (38)
    137 Wausau, WI 38.3          14.8 1.1% 48
    138 Joplin, MO 38.2          12.8 0.3% 1
    139 Flint, MI 38.2          11.4 -2.6% (69)
    140 Burlington-South Burlington, VT NECTA 37.0          13.4 -3.6% (68)
    141 Glens Falls, NY 36.6            6.1 -2.7% (31)
    142 Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, TN-VA 36.3          21.4 -0.9% (62)
    143 Sherman-Denison, TX 36.2            5.3 -1.9% (32)
    144 Springfield, IL 36.2            3.0 0.0% (23)
    145 Sumter, SC 36.0            6.1 0.0% 5
    146 Muncie, IN 35.5            4.1 -3.9% (98)
    147 Mansfield, OH 33.8            9.3 -1.1% (41)
    148 Decatur, IL 33.6          10.0 -7.7% 40
    149 Peabody, MA  NECTA Div 33.5          10.1 -0.7% (16)
    150 Hanford-Corcoran, CA 33.1            3.8 -4.2% (8)
    151 Kingston, NY 31.1            3.4 1.0% 27
    152 Hattiesburg, MS 31.1            4.1 -5.4% (85)
    153 Jackson, TN 29.7            8.4 1.2% (27)
    154 Gulfport-Biloxi, MS 29.6            5.4 -1.2% 2
    155 San Angelo, TX 28.1            3.2 -10.3% (128)
    156 Danville, VA 28.0            6.6 -3.9% (96)
    157 Wilmington, NC 27.4            7.3 -2.7% (12)
    158 Fayetteville, NC 27.3          11.3 -5.0% (79)
    159 Altoona, PA 27.1            6.8 -3.8% (95)
    160 Albany, GA 26.8            4.4 1.5% 12
    161 Leominster-Fitchburg-Gardner, MA NECTA 26.5            6.1 0.0% 21
    162 Waterbury, CT NECTA 26.2            7.5 -0.4% (22)
    163 Burlington, NC 25.7            8.5 -0.8% (49)
    164 Brownsville-Harlingen, TX 24.8            5.5 -2.9% (77)
    165 Manchester, NH NECTA 24.1            7.5 -0.4% (5)
    166 Lewiston-Auburn, ME NECTA 23.4            4.7 -0.7% 11
    167 Bangor, ME NECTA 23.2            2.6 -1.3% (42)
    168 Michigan City-La Porte, IN 22.5            7.5 -2.6% (51)
    169 Champaign-Urbana, IL 22.5            8.0 -2.0% (48)
    170 Steubenville-Weirton, OH-WV 21.8            5.7 1.8% 9
    171 Wichita Falls, TX 21.2            5.2 -3.7% 17
    172 Rome, GA 20.9            5.5 -1.2% (3)
    173 Palm Coast, FL 20.5            0.8 0.0% 11
    174 Dalton, GA 20.4          21.1 -0.3% 23
    175 Williamsport, PA 20.3            8.1 -1.6% (1)
    176 Anniston-Oxford, AL 19.9            5.6 -1.7% (40)
    177 Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV 19.1            7.6 -2.6% (20)
    178 Longview, TX 19.0            9.7 -5.8% (30)
    179 Cheyenne, WY 18.8            1.2 -5.1% (24)
    180 Rochester, MN 18.3            9.8 -6.4% (52)
    181 Pocatello, ID 17.4            3.0 -3.2% (9)
    182 New Bedford, MA NECTA 16.9            7.8 -7.2% (33)
    183 Danville, IL 16.5            4.8 -7.7% (94)
    184 Texarkana, TX-Texarkana, AR 15.7            3.9 -4.9% (2)
    185 Clarksville, TN-KY 14.8            9.9 -4.8% (4)
    186 Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL 14.5            3.3 -3.9% 5
    187 Fort Smith, AR-OK 14.5          18.3 0.2% 6
    188 Elmira, NY 12.6            5.1 -10.1% (35)
    189 Nashua, NH-MA  NECTA Div 12.2          19.7 -4.5% (26)
    190 Las Cruces, NM 12.1            2.7 -6.9% (47)
    191 Dothan, AL 11.7            4.7 0.0% 8
    192 Johnstown, PA 11.0            3.7 -6.7% (31)
    193 Johnson City, TN 10.9            7.3 -3.5% (22)
    194 Wheeling, WV-OH 8.2            3.2 -4.0% (28)
    195 Tyler, TX 7.7            5.2 -1.9% (1)
    196 Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ 7.3            2.1 -4.6% 2
    197 Corvallis, OR 5.2            2.9 -4.3% (10)
    198 Binghamton, NY 3.9          11.9 -5.3% (4)
    199 Laredo, TX 1.0            0.7 -8.7% 1

  • The Cities Winning The Battle For Information Jobs 2014

    In the town of Verona on the rural fringes of Madison, Wisc., there’s a Google-like campus that houses one of the country’s most rapidly growing tech companies, and one of the least well known. Founded in 1979, the medical software maker Epic has grown to employ 6,800 people, most of whom work at its 5.5 million-square-foot headquarters complex, which sprawls over 800 acres of what was farmland until the early 1990s.

    Despite annual revenue estimated at $1.5 billion, the company is congenitally publicity shy, a characteristic associated with its founder and CEO, Judy Faulkner. Yet in its quiet, unassuming way, Epic is emblematic of the expansion of the information industry in the Madison area. Employment in the metropolitan area’s information sector is up 28% since 2008, among the fastest growth in the country over that period. This has occurred despite the city’s reputation for left-wing, often anti-business politics—a culture that its left-leaning mayor (and Epic booster), Paul Soglin, describes as “76 square miles surrounded by reality.”

    To come up with our list of the cities with the fastest-growing information sectors, we zeroed in on the 55 metropolitan statistical areas that have at least 10,000 information jobs, which includes software, publishing, broadcasting and telecommunications services. We used the same methodology as for our overall ranking of the Best Cities for Jobs: we ranked the MSAs based on job growth in the sector over the long-term (2002-13), mid-term (2008-13) and the last two years, as well as recent momentum.

    View the Best Cities for Information Jobs 2014 List

    Our top 10 is dominated by large metro areas renowned as tech hubs – Madison, at No. 5,  is the smallest by far. In first place is Silicon Valley — San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara — followed by San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, which together employ over 110,000 information workers. Both have been primary winners in the latest high-tech bubble. Since 2008 information employment is up 23% in San Jose and 27% in San Francisco.

    They’re followed by Boston-Cambridge-Quincy in third place, and Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, Texas in fourth. The foundation built in previous tech booms — including venture capital, educational institutions, corporate headquarters, and skilled workers — has helped many of the strongest tech regions become even more so this go around.

    But there are some surprising places on our list, including a few Sun Belt metro areas that were hard hit in the housing bust. Take Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Ga., which ranks sixth on our list, with a 7.7% expansion in information employment since 2010. Less expensive than the West Coast hotbeds or Boston, Atlanta could be emerging as a player in the sector. Last year General Motors opened a software facility in suburban Roswell, with plans to create over 1,000 new jobs.

    Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, Ariz., ranks ninth with 11% growth in information employment since 2008. In 2013, the metro area added as many information jobs, roughly 2,000, as the Bay Area, according to an Arizona State University study.

    The Big Players

    Historically, information jobs have clustered in the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. Los Angeles still leads the nation with 201,000 information jobs, while New York is No. 2 with 182,000.

    Yet the fortunes of the biggest players appear to be changing. New York ranks a respectable 13th on our list of the fastest-growing cities for information jobs, with a 7.7% expansion since 2008. This reflects not only the growth of the city’s relatively small tech sector but also its robust film, television and media industries. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, however, has not fared nearly so well, ranking a middling 27th, on our list. This reflects, in part, the erosion of the region’s once dominant entertainment industry. This is particularly true of feature films, where production has dropped 50% from 1996 levels. Since 2000, L.A. has lost 9,000 entertainment industry jobs, leaving it with 132,000.

    With tech companies such as Apple and Google targeting content, and the massive shift of readers over to the web, the preeminence of New York and Los Angeles could continue to erode over time.

    This shift can be seen in the growing forays of the Valley into film and television production through companies such as Netflix and Google’s YouTube, as well as in the already longstanding decline of the music industry — undermined by both legal and illegal forms of music distribution online.

    Information Jobs Set To Disperse

    For New York, a more worrisome development is the massive decline of newspaper, magazine and book industry employment. At a time when Google alone reaps more advertising revenues than the entire newspaper business, it’s not surprising that media growth is shifting toward the Left Coast. Since 2001, the book publishing industry, dominated by New York, has contracted nationally by 17,000 jobs. Newspapers lost 190,000 positions and magazines 50,000 in that same span. But internet publishing, dominated by the Bay Area, expanded by 77,000 jobs during the same window.

    In many ways, the recent tech boom, with its emphasis on social media, has been a blessing to high-cost areas such as Silicon Valley, San Francisco and even New York. Yet at the same time, as we have seen in our other jobs lists, the information sector is expanding most rapidly in some fairly unexpected places. Some of the fastest growers on a percentage basis are still minor players– Janesville, Wisc., Lansing, Mich., and Flint Mich. –  and are tied largely to the up and downs of the manufacturing sector.

    But some, like Madison, are heading toward critical mass. Provo-Orem, Utah, for example, with some 9,800 information jobs, did not make the 10,000 job cut for our list, but should soon given its 21% growth since 2008. Others are in regions just outside the main information hubs, including Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta, north of Los Angeles, and San Luis Obispo, south of San Jose, as well as Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, north of New York, and Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C., just outside Raleigh-Cary. There has also been rapid information job growth in Huntsville, Ala., a tech center that built up around NASA, and Baton Rouge, La., which has benefited from growth in energy and manufacturing along the lower Mississippi.

    Ultimately, price pressures, particularly on housing, are likely to feed growth in some of these emerging regions. In this way, what is happening in Madison foreshadows the growth of a whole series of new information hotbeds. These may not challenge Silicon Valley, New York or Hollywood in the near future, but they are likely to make their presence known as information jobs continue to spread to fast-growing and more affordable regions.

    View the Best Cities for Information Jobs 2014 List

    This story originally appeared at Forbes.

    Joel Kotkin is executive editor of NewGeography.com and Distinguished Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University, and a member of the editorial board of the Orange County Register. He is author of The City: A Global History and The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050. His most recent study, The Rise of Postfamilialism, has been widely discussed and distributed internationally. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.

    Michael Shires, Ph.D. is a professor at Pepperdine University School of Public Policy.

    Madison, Wisconsin photo by Patrick43470.

  • Midsize Cities Information Jobs – 2014 Best Cities Rankings

    View the Best Cities for Information Jobs 2014 List

    2014 MSA Info  Ranking – Midsized MSAs Area 2014 Weighted INDEX 2013 Information Employment 20012-13 Info Growth 2014 Ranking Change from 2013 – Midsized MSAs
    1 Provo-Orem, UT 93.0                  9.8 10.5% 3
    2 Lansing-East Lansing, MI 90.3                  3.2 5.4% 1
    3 Madison, WI 85.5                12.6 1.9% 2
    4 Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta, CA 84.7                  4.3 -0.8% (2)
    5 Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT NECTA 83.7                12.0 5.9% 13
    6 Baton Rouge, LA 83.2                  5.5 6.4% 1
    7 Huntsville, AL 82.8                  2.7 3.8% 2
    8 Durham-Chapel Hill, NC 79.0                  3.7 2.8% 3
    9 Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville, SC 78.4                  5.2 2.0% 20
    10 Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC 77.7                  3.1 5.6% 70
    11 El Paso, TX 77.2                  5.8 -2.8% 13
    12 Boise City-Nampa, ID 74.6                  4.5 3.1% 29
    13 Lincoln, NE 73.1                  2.5 -1.3% 59
    14 Worcester, MA-CT NECTA 71.8                  3.6 0.0% 9
    15 Springfield, MA-CT NECTA 71.0                  3.9 6.3% 13
    16 Tallahassee, FL 69.6                  3.4 2.0% 10
    17 Spokane, WA 69.0                  2.9 -3.3% (1)
    18 Tacoma, WA Metropolitan Division 69.0                  2.9 3.6% 55
    19 Knoxville, TN 68.7                  5.6 -0.6% 8
    20 McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX 68.7                  2.1 -1.6% 23
    21 Ann Arbor, MI 68.2                  4.1 2.5% 12
    22 Jackson, MS 67.7                  4.7 -3.4% (12)
    23 Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI 64.8                  4.4 3.1% 30
    24 Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ 63.9                  6.2 2.2% 21
    25 Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL 63.1                  3.1 1.1% 12
    26 Gary, IN Metropolitan Division 62.8                  2.1 3.3% 14
    27 Greenville-Mauldin-Easley, SC 62.0                  6.7 -0.5% (10)
    28 Akron, OH 61.5                  3.9 1.7% 20
    29 Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA 61.3                  2.6 2.6% (15)
    30 Montgomery, AL 60.3                  2.2 0.0% 2
    31 Columbia, SC 60.3                  5.4 -0.6% 36
    32 York-Hanover, PA 60.2                  1.8 1.9% (11)
    33 Winston-Salem, NC 59.4                  2.0 3.5% 44
    34 Springfield, MO 58.9                  3.9 2.7% 0
    35 Anchorage, AK 58.5                  4.5 1.5% 25
    36 Mobile, AL 57.6                  2.0 1.7% 27
    37 Toledo, OH 57.3                  3.4 -1.0% (12)
    38 Asheville, NC 56.6                  1.9 0.0% (26)
    39 Ogden-Clearfield, UT 56.4                  2.1 -3.1% (33)
    40 Boulder, CO 56.3                  8.4 0.0% (10)
    41 Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA 56.3                  5.1 -1.9% (2)
    42 Corpus Christi, TX 54.6                  2.1 -1.6% 14
    43 Fort Wayne, IN 54.6                  3.3 -3.0% (30)
    44 Trenton-Ewing, NJ 53.6                  5.4 -4.1% (43)
    45 North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL 52.1                  3.3 -1.0% 24
    46 Fresno, CA 50.7                  3.8 0.9% (26)
    47 Bakersfield-Delano, CA 50.2                  2.5 -7.4% (28)
    48 Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL 46.7                  2.5 0.0% 17
    49 Shreveport-Bossier City, LA 45.9                  2.4 1.4% 8
    50 Tucson, AZ 44.2                  4.3 1.6% 0
    51 Framingham, MA  NECTA Division 44.0                  5.3 -3.6% (15)
    52 Kansas City, KS 43.4                15.2 3.2% (6)
    53 Canton-Massillon, OH 43.4                  1.7 0.0% (9)
    54 Lexington-Fayette, KY 42.8                  5.6 -5.1% 4
    55 Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY 42.4                  8.3 -3.1% (6)
    56 Colorado Springs, CO 42.2                  6.9 -5.0% (21)
    57 Chattanooga, TN-GA 41.9                  2.8 -2.3% 30
    58 Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA 40.7                  4.9 1.4% 18
    59 Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR-MO 40.6                  1.8 -3.5% 9
    60 Green Bay, WI 38.5                  1.9 -3.4% (9)
    61 Lancaster, PA 37.7                  3.1 0.0% 9
    62 Calvert-Charles-Prince George’s, MD 37.4                  5.2 -5.5% (47)
    63 Lafayette, LA 37.2                  2.5 -5.1% 22
    64 Savannah, GA 37.1                  1.3 -4.8% 0
    65 Peoria, IL 35.2                  2.2 -8.3% (34)
    66 Syracuse, NY 34.4                  4.5 -3.6% (12)
    67 Tulsa, OK 33.6                  7.7 -2.5% (8)
    68 Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR 33.3                  7.1 -2.3% 14
    69 Albuquerque, NM 32.9                  7.4 -7.9% (61)
    70 Reading, PA 32.7                  1.3 -4.9% (48)
    71 Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX 31.2                  1.4 -2.3% 7
    72 Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, FL 30.8                  2.3 -2.8% 12
    73 Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown, NY 30.0                  3.6 -2.7% (2)
    74 Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL 29.3                  1.5 -4.2% (19)
    75 Lake County-Kenosha County, IL-WI Metro Div 28.1                  3.7 -5.1% (37)
    76 Greensboro-High Point, NC 26.2                  4.9 -7.0% (34)
    77 Roanoke, VA 25.5                  1.7 -5.5% (15)
    78 Wichita, KS 25.3                  4.3 0.0% 12
    79 Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL 23.8                  1.8 -6.9% (32)
    80 Stockton, CA 23.5                  1.9 -6.6% 3
    81 Portland-South Portland-Biddeford, ME NECTA 22.2                  3.1 -2.1% 10
    82 Evansville, IN-KY 21.3                  1.9 -3.4% (3)
    83 Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA 21.3                  7.0 -2.8% (17)
    84 Baltimore City, MD 20.9                  3.8 -4.2% (32)
    85 Wilmington, DE-MD-NJ Metropolitan Division 20.5                  4.4 -4.3% (10)
    86 Dayton, OH 19.7                  8.5 -3.8% 0
    87 Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL 17.4                  1.9 -5.0% (26)
    88 Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA 17.3                  2.0 -3.2% 1
    89 Reno-Sparks, NV 16.9                  1.9 -3.4% (8)
    90 Scranton–Wilkes-Barre, PA 13.3                  3.8 -3.4% (16)
    91 Modesto, CA 12.1                  0.9 0.0% 0
    92 New Haven, CT NECTA 9.5                  4.1 -4.7% (4)

  • Large Cities Information Jobs – 2014 Best Cities Rankings

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    2014 MSA Info  Ranking – LARGE MSAs Area Weighted INDEX 2013 Information Employment 20012-13 Info Growth 2014  Change from 2013 – Large MSAs
    1 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 96.4                60.8 9.2% 0
    2 Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX 90.7                23.6 2.6% 3
    3 San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA Metro Div 89.5                52.3 3.2% (1)
    4 Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ 84.9                33.7 4.1% 5
    5 New York City, NY 84.3             181.8 3.3% 8
    6 Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA NECTA Division 80.1                59.5 2.5% (2)
    7 San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX 79.9                20.9 3.6% 0
    8 Columbus, OH 79.5                18.2 2.8% 21
    9 Salt Lake City, UT 78.2                18.5 -2.8% 8
    10 Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA Metro Div 78.0                88.0 1.7% 5
    11 Raleigh-Cary, NC 77.8                18.1 2.3% (3)
    12 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA Metro Div 77.7             201.5 2.3% 16
    13 Indianapolis-Carmel, IN 77.5                16.1 1.5% 1
    14 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA 77.3                23.1 1.3% 13
    15 Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, FL Metro Div 76.7                18.8 2.4% (3)
    16 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA 76.7                85.0 1.4% (10)
    17 Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC 75.2                22.2 1.4% (6)
    18 New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA 73.3                  8.1 -8.6% (15)
    19 Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN 72.6                20.3 1.2% (9)
    20 Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, MI Metro Div 71.1                19.7 1.2% (4)
    21 Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX Metro Div 69.4                66.6 3.0% 9
    22 Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL 68.8                23.9 2.0% 20
    23 Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX 68.2                32.7 2.8% 1
    24 West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach, FL Metro Div 67.8                  9.6 1.8% 16
    25 St. Louis, MO-IL 66.3                29.6 1.0% 0
    26 Las Vegas-Paradise, NV 65.3                  9.7 -4.3% (4)
    27 Louisville-Jefferson County, KY-IN 64.7                  9.5 -0.3% (8)
    28 Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT NECTA 64.2                11.0 -2.4% 17
    29 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI 62.5                38.7 -0.3% (8)
    30 Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA Metro Div 62.2                25.6 3.2% 7
    31 Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO 61.7                43.4 0.2% 2
    32 Cincinnati-Middletown, OH-KY-IN 61.2                14.0 -1.2% 3
    33 Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL Metro Div 60.7                74.6 -0.2% (13)
    34 Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL Metro Div 57.0                18.1 0.0% (3)
    35 Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA 55.9                11.0 -0.3% (17)
    36 Honolulu, HI 55.8                  7.1 -3.2% 10
    37 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL 55.5                26.0 0.1% 11
    38 Pittsburgh, PA 54.7                18.5 -0.5% (12)
    39 Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI Metro Div 50.5                  7.4 3.2% 21
    40 Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY 48.9                  7.4 -1.8% (8)
    41 Philadelphia City, PA 48.7                11.5 -3.6% (18)
    42 Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH 48.4                15.1 -0.4% 5
    43 Jacksonville, FL 47.4                  9.1 -0.4% 9
    44 Nassau-Suffolk, NY Metro Div 46.5                23.6 -2.2% (5)
    45 Memphis, TN-MS-AR 44.9                  6.0 0.6% (1)
    46 Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI 44.1                14.5 -1.4% 5
    47 Edison-New Brunswick, NJ Metro Div 43.4                24.2 -2.9% (13)
    48 Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA 43.0                11.2 -2.0% 16
    49 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metro Div 42.3                61.4 -1.7% 1
    50 Birmingham-Hoover, AL 41.7                  8.8 -0.8% 9
    51 Northern Virginia, VA 40.1                38.9 -1.7% (2)
    52 Providence-Fall River-Warwick, RI-MA NECTA 39.2                10.0 -4.1% 4
    53 San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA 38.9                24.0 -1.8% (17)
    54 Bergen-Hudson-Passaic, NJ 38.7                17.3 -2.4% 1
    55 Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro Div 38.6                13.2 -2.9% (1)
    56 Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick, MD Metro Div 37.5                13.7 -4.8% (13)
    57 Newark-Union, NJ-PA Metro Div 36.6                18.5 -1.8% (19)
    58 Kansas City, MO 36.5                14.7 -1.6% 3
    59 Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC 36.4                11.2 -2.9% (2)
    60 Richmond, VA 35.0                  8.1 2.1% 5
    61 Putnam-Rockland-Westchester, NY 34.7                12.6 -2.1% (8)
    62 Oakland-Fremont-Hayward, CA Metro Div 33.4                21.4 -2.3% (4)
    63 Rochester, NY 30.9                  8.4 -6.7% (22)
    64 Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville, CA 28.3                14.7 -4.5% (1)
    65 Camden, NJ Metro Div 24.8                  6.2 -9.7% 1
    66 Oklahoma City, OK 17.1                  8.1 -2.4% (4)

  • All Cities Information Jobs – 2014 Best Cities Rankings

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    2014 MSA Info Overall Ranking Area Weighted INDEX 2013 Information Employment 20012-13 Info Growth 2014  Change from 2013 –
    All MSAs
    1 Janesville, WI 97.9                  1.5 18.4% 121
    2 Flint, MI 97.3                  4.2 9.5% 1
    3 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 96.4                60.8 9.2% (1)
    4 Logan, UT-ID 93.3                  0.9 12.5% 12
    5 Provo-Orem, UT 93.0                  9.8 10.5% 6
    6 Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX 90.7                23.6 2.6% 12
    7 Lansing-East Lansing, MI 90.3                  3.2 5.4% 3
    8 San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA Metro Div 89.5                52.3 3.2% (3)
    9 Abilene, TX 88.2                  1.2 9.1% 74
    10 Laredo, TX 88.1                  0.7 16.7% 26
    11 San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA 87.3                  1.4 7.7% 34
    12 Rochester, MN 87.2                  1.7 6.2% 2
    13 Fond du Lac, WI 86.5                  0.9 12.5% 198
    14 Madison, WI 85.5                12.6 1.9% 5
    15 Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ 84.9                33.7 4.1% 15
    16 Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta, CA 84.7                  4.3 -0.8% (8)
    17 College Station-Bryan, TX 84.5                  1.3 0.0% (13)
    18 New York City, NY 84.3             181.8 3.3% 22
    19 Portsmouth, NH-ME NECTA 84.0                  2.0 1.7% 9
    20 Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT NECTA 83.7                12.0 5.9% 43
    21 Baton Rouge, LA 83.2                  5.5 6.4% 8
    22 Huntsville, AL 82.8                  2.7 3.8% 11
    23 Lafayette, IN 80.5                  1.1 6.5% 42
    24 Tyler, TX 80.3                  2.3 2.9% (15)
    25 Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA NECTA Division 80.1                59.5 2.5% (8)
    26 Champaign-Urbana, IL 80.1                  2.5 10.4% 236
    27 San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX 79.9                20.9 3.6% (5)
    28 Columbus, OH 79.5                18.2 2.8% 70
    29 Durham-Chapel Hill, NC 79.0                  3.7 2.8% 9
    30 Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville, SC 78.4                  5.2 2.0% 73
    31 Salt Lake City, UT 78.2                18.5 -2.8% 31
    32 Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA Metro Div 78.0                88.0 1.7% 18
    33 Raleigh-Cary, NC 77.8                18.1 2.3% (10)
    34 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA Metro Div 77.7             201.5 2.3% 57
    35 Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC 77.7                  3.1 5.6% 221
    36 Indianapolis-Carmel, IN 77.5                16.1 1.5% 5
    37 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA 77.3                23.1 1.3% 52
    38 El Paso, TX 77.2                  5.8 -2.8% 55
    39 Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, FL Metro Div 76.7                18.8 2.4% 0
    40 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA 76.7                85.0 1.4% (19)
    41 Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC 75.6                  1.0 0.0% (21)
    42 Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC 75.2                22.2 1.4% (5)
    43 Cheyenne, WY 75.1                  1.1 0.0% (42)
    44 Boise City-Nampa, ID 74.6                  4.5 3.1% 98
    45 Binghamton, NY 74.6                  1.9 11.8% 75
    46 Sebastian-Vero Beach, FL 73.9                  0.7 0.0% 2
    47 New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA 73.3                  8.1 -8.6% (40)
    48 Lincoln, NE 73.1                  2.5 -1.3% 184
    49 Oshkosh-Neenah, WI 72.9                  1.6 2.1% 22
    50 Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN 72.6                20.3 1.2% (16)
    51 Greenville, NC 72.6                  1.0 11.1% 44
    52 Bend, OR 72.4                  1.4 0.0% 154
    53 Saginaw-Saginaw Township North, MI 72.1                  1.4 7.7% 194
    54 Las Cruces, NM 71.9                  0.9 0.0% (12)
    55 Worcester, MA-CT NECTA 71.8                  3.6 0.0% 37
    56 Auburn-Opelika, AL 71.7                  0.5 0.0% 201
    57 Flagstaff, AZ 71.6                  0.4 0.0% 0
    58 Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, MI Metro Div 71.1                19.7 1.2% (7)
    59 Springfield, MA-CT NECTA 71.0                  3.9 6.3% 43
    60 Lewiston, ID-WA 70.8                  0.4 0.0% 0
    61 Cleveland, TN 70.1                  0.3 0.0% (6)
    62 Bay City, MI 70.1                  0.5 25.0% 135
    63 Eugene-Springfield, OR 69.7                  3.3 0.0% 54
    64 Tallahassee, FL 69.6                  3.4 2.0% 33
    65 Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX Metro Div 69.4                66.6 3.0% 46
    66 Spokane, WA 69.0                  2.9 -3.3% (14)
    67 Tacoma, WA Metro Div 69.0                  2.9 3.6% 167
    68 Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL 68.8                23.9 2.0% 78
    69 Knoxville, TN 68.7                  5.6 -0.6% 30
    70 Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, TN-VA 68.7                  2.1 0.0% 233
    71 McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX 68.7                  2.1 -1.6% 74
    72 Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX 68.2                32.7 2.8% 9
    73 Muskegon-Norton Shores, MI 68.2                  0.8 14.3% 202
    74 Ann Arbor, MI 68.2                  4.1 2.5% 34
    75 West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach, FL Metro Div 67.8                  9.6 1.8% 63
    76 Clarksville, TN-KY 67.7                  1.1 -3.0% (52)
    77 Jackson, MS 67.7                  4.7 -3.4% (42)
    78 Columbus, IN 67.6                  0.5 0.0% (63)
    79 Wilmington, NC 66.8                  2.9 2.4% 117
    80 St. Louis, MO-IL 66.3                29.6 1.0% 5
    81 Fargo, ND-MN 66.2                  3.3 3.1% 111
    82 Prescott, AZ 65.9                  0.6 0.0% (6)
    83 Burlington, NC 65.7                  0.5 0.0% 108
    84 Las Vegas-Paradise, NV 65.3                  9.7 -4.3% (7)
    85 Sherman-Denison, TX 65.2                  0.5 0.0% 130
    86 Bloomington, IN 65.0                  1.3 0.0% 1
    87 Rochester-Dover, NH-ME NECTA 64.8                  1.2 0.0% (61)
    88 Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI 64.8                  4.4 3.1% 89
    89 St. Cloud, MN 64.8                  1.7 0.0% (10)
    90 Louisville-Jefferson County, KY-IN 64.7                  9.5 -0.3% (20)
    91 Glens Falls, NY 64.5                  1.0 3.4% (9)
    92 Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT NECTA 64.2                11.0 -2.4% 61
    93 Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ 63.9                  6.2 2.2% 62
    94 Madera-Chowchilla, CA 63.7                  0.4 20.0% 43
    95 Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury, MA-NH  NECTA Division 63.7                  0.9 -3.7% 40
    96 Pueblo, CO 63.4                  0.7 5.0% 61
    97 Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL 63.1                  3.1 1.1% 29
    98 Gary, IN Metro Div 62.8                  2.1 3.3% 43
    99 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI 62.5                38.7 -0.3% (24)
    100 Yuma, AZ 62.4                  0.5 -16.7% (87)
    101 Sioux Falls, SD 62.2                  2.7 1.3% 109
    102 Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA Metro Div 62.2                25.6 3.2% 26
    103 Greenville-Mauldin-Easley, SC 62.0                  6.7 -0.5% (42)
    104 Kokomo, IN 61.9                  0.4 0.0% (46)
    105 Naples-Marco Island, FL 61.7                  1.5 0.0% (11)
    106 Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO 61.7                43.4 0.2% 13
    107 Victoria, TX 61.6                  0.5 0.0% 166
    108 Akron, OH 61.5                  3.9 1.7% 57
    109 Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA 61.3                  2.6 2.6% (63)
    110 Decatur, AL 61.3                  0.3 0.0% 51
    111 Ithaca, NY 61.3                  0.5 0.0% 5
    112 Cincinnati-Middletown, OH-KY-IN 61.2                14.0 -1.2% 11
    113 Altoona, PA 61.2                  0.9 4.0% 92
    114 Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL Metro Div 60.7                74.6 -0.2% (42)
    115 St. George, UT 60.6                  0.7 0.0% (83)
    116 Barnstable Town, MA NECTA 60.4                  1.6 0.0% (49)
    117 Montgomery, AL 60.3                  2.2 0.0% (10)
    118 Columbia, SC 60.3                  5.4 -0.6% 100
    119 York-Hanover, PA 60.2                  1.8 1.9% (39)
    120 Gadsden, AL 60.1                  0.4 22.2% 187
    121 Winston-Salem, NC 59.4                  2.0 3.5% 121
    122 Fort Collins-Loveland, CO 59.2                  2.4 0.0% (32)
    123 Manchester, NH NECTA 59.1                  3.1 -3.1% (55)
    124 Springfield, MO 58.9                  3.9 2.7% (15)
    125 Santa Fe, NM 58.8                  0.9 13.0% 181
    126 Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, TX 58.6                  2.2 1.5% 13
    127 Grand Junction, CO 58.6                  0.8 0.0% 109
    128 Longview, TX 58.6                  1.4 0.0% (16)
    129 Anchorage, AK 58.5                  4.5 1.5% 66
    130 Yuba City, CA 58.5                  0.4 0.0% 18
    131 Fort Smith, AR-OK 58.1                  1.3 -4.9% (119)
    132 Lawton, OK 58.1                  0.5 0.0% 120
    133 Redding, CA 58.0                  0.6 5.6% 41
    134 Terre Haute, IN 57.7                  0.7 0.0% (33)
    135 Mobile, AL 57.6                  2.0 1.7% 66
    136 Toledo, OH 57.3                  3.4 -1.0% (40)
    137 South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI 57.2                  1.8 0.0% 71
    138 La Crosse, WI-MN 57.2                  1.1 0.0% (50)
    139 Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL Metro Div 57.0                18.1 0.0% (25)
    140 Cedar Rapids, IA 56.9                  4.9 -0.7% (10)
    141 Fayetteville, NC 56.6                  1.5 0.0% 76
    142 Asheville, NC 56.6                  1.9 0.0% (99)
    143 Ogden-Clearfield, UT 56.4                  2.1 -3.1% (118)
    144 Boulder, CO 56.3                  8.4 0.0% (40)
    145 Texarkana, TX-Texarkana, AR 56.3                  0.5 0.0% 24
    146 Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA 56.3                  5.1 -1.9% (17)
    147 Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA 55.9                11.0 -0.3% (78)
    148 Honolulu, HI 55.8                  7.1 -3.2% 6
    149 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL 55.5                26.0 0.1% 9
    150 Grand Forks, ND-MN 55.3                  0.6 0.0% 88
    151 Pittsburgh, PA 54.7                18.5 -0.5% (65)
    152 Corpus Christi, TX 54.6                  2.1 -1.6% 35
    153 Fort Wayne, IN 54.6                  3.3 -3.0% (109)
    154 Kankakee-Bradley, IL 54.5                  0.5 0.0% 162
    155 Port St. Lucie, FL 54.3                  1.4 5.1% 106
    156 Holland-Grand Haven, MI 53.9                  0.7 0.0% (92)
    157 Wichita Falls, TX 53.7                  1.1 10.0% 83
    158 El Centro, CA 53.7                  0.4 0.0% (102)
    159 Trenton-Ewing, NJ 53.6                  5.4 -4.1% (153)
    160 Coeur d’Alene, ID 53.0                  0.7 16.7% 135
    161 North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL 52.1                  3.3 -1.0% 60
    162 Peabody, MA  NECTA Division 51.2                  1.1 -2.9% (26)
    163 Fresno, CA 50.7                  3.8 0.9% (89)
    164 Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI Metro Div 50.5                  7.4 3.2% 56
    165 Bakersfield-Delano, CA 50.2                  2.5 -7.4% (99)
    166 Anderson, IN 49.8                  0.5 0.0% 87
    167 Kingston, NY 49.0                  1.0 -6.3% (140)
    168 Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY 48.9                  7.4 -1.8% (50)
    169 Philadelphia City, PA 48.7                11.5 -3.6% (91)
    170 Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH 48.4                15.1 -0.4% (14)
    171 Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV 47.4                  2.3 0.0% 56
    172 Jacksonville, FL 47.4                  9.1 -0.4% 3
    173 Casper, WY 46.9                  0.5 -6.7% (119)
    174 Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL 46.7                  2.5 0.0% 35
    175 Duluth, MN-WI 46.6                  1.5 4.5% 111
    176 Elkhart-Goshen, IN 46.6                  0.6 0.0% (27)
    177 Nassau-Suffolk, NY Metro Div 46.5                23.6 -2.2% (45)
    178 Muncie, IN 46.2                  0.3 0.0% 34
    179 Shreveport-Bossier City, LA 45.9                  2.4 1.4% 11
    180 Dothan, AL 45.6                  0.7 0.0% (40)
    181 Racine, WI 45.3                  0.4 0.0% (48)
    182 Memphis, TN-MS-AR 44.9                  6.0 0.6% (31)
    183 Elmira, NY 44.6                  0.4 0.0% 50
    184 Pocatello, ID 44.4                  0.4 0.0% 106
    185 Tucson, AZ 44.2                  4.3 1.6% (17)
    186 Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI 44.1                14.5 -1.4% (15)
    187 Burlington-South Burlington, VT NECTA 44.0                  2.2 0.0% 90
    188 Framingham, MA  NECTA Division 44.0                  5.3 -3.6% (73)
    189 Kansas City, KS 43.4                15.2 3.2% (30)
    190 Edison-New Brunswick, NJ Metro Div 43.4                24.2 -2.9% (69)
    191 Canton-Massillon, OH 43.4                  1.7 0.0% (44)
    192 Waco, TX 43.3                  1.3 0.0% 71
    193 Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA 43.0                11.2 -2.0% 66
    194 Dover, DE 43.0                  0.5 0.0% 123
    195 Lexington-Fayette, KY 42.8                  5.6 -5.1% (2)
    196 Gainesville, FL 42.7                  1.5 2.3% 68
    197 Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY 42.4                  8.3 -3.1% (30)
    198 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metro Div 42.3                61.4 -1.7% (28)
    199 Colorado Springs, CO 42.2                  6.9 -5.0% (86)
    200 Waterbury, CT NECTA 42.0                  0.6 0.0% 35
    201 Chattanooga, TN-GA 41.9                  2.8 -2.3% 83
    202 Birmingham-Hoover, AL 41.7                  8.8 -0.8% 1
    203 Vineland-Millville-Bridgeton, NJ 41.6                  0.8 0.0% 55
    204 Amarillo, TX 41.4                  1.4 0.0% 3
    205 Bismarck, ND 41.3                  0.9 0.0% 23
    206 Charleston, WV 40.7                  1.9 1.8% 49
    207 Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA 40.7                  4.9 1.4% 34
    208 Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR-MO 40.6                  1.8 -3.5% 11
    209 Napa, CA 40.6                  0.6 0.0% (20)
    210 Northern Virginia, VA 40.1                38.9 -1.7% (50)
    211 Palm Coast, FL 40.1                  0.9 0.0% 60
    212 Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ 40.0                  0.8 0.0% 53
    213 Eau Claire, WI 39.8                  0.9 0.0% 0
    214 Fairbanks, AK 39.7                  0.5 0.0% (38)
    215 Nashua, NH-MA  NECTA Division 39.4                  1.9 -5.0% (162)
    216 Providence-Fall River-Warwick, RI-MA NECTA 39.2                10.0 -4.1% (32)
    217 San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA 38.9                24.0 -1.8% (93)
    218 Bergen-Hudson-Passaic, NJ 38.7                17.3 -2.4% (38)
    219 Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro Div 38.6                13.2 -2.9% (40)
    220 New Bedford, MA NECTA 38.6                  0.6 0.0% 10
    221 Green Bay, WI 38.5                  1.9 -3.4% (49)
    222 Pittsfield, MA NECTA 38.5                  0.5 0.0% 28
    223 Vallejo-Fairfield, CA 38.1                  1.1 -2.9% 6
    224 Lancaster, PA 37.7                  3.1 0.0% (2)
    225 Odessa, TX 37.7                  0.5 0.0% (120)
    226 Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick, MD Metro Div 37.5                13.7 -4.8% (76)
    227 Hanford-Corcoran, CA 37.5                  0.2 0.0% (2)
    228 Calvert-Charles-Prince George’s, MD 37.4                  5.2 -5.5% (181)
    229 Lafayette, LA 37.2                  2.5 -5.1% 47
    230 Savannah, GA 37.1                  1.3 -4.8% (26)
    231 Newark-Union, NJ-PA Metro Div 36.6                18.5 -1.8% (100)
    232 Kansas City, MO 36.5                14.7 -1.6% (1)
    233 Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC 36.4                11.2 -2.9% (47)
    234 Peoria, IL 35.2                  2.2 -8.3% (128)
    235 Lubbock, TX 35.1                  3.9 -0.8% 53
    236 Richmond, VA 35.0                  8.1 2.1% 47
    237 Putnam-Rockland-Westchester, NY 34.7                12.6 -2.1% (59)
    238 Syracuse, NY 34.4                  4.5 -3.6% (55)
    239 Tulsa, OK 33.6                  7.7 -2.5% (45)
    240 Punta Gorda, FL 33.6                  0.4 0.0% 9
    241 Oakland-Fremont-Hayward, CA Metro Div 33.4                21.4 -2.3% (41)
    242 Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR 33.3                  7.1 -2.3% 24
    243 Albuquerque, NM 32.9                  7.4 -7.9% (212)
    244 Reading, PA 32.7                  1.3 -4.9% (160)
    245 Chico, CA 32.2                  1.0 -6.3% (196)
    246 Johnstown, PA 31.7                  0.7 -4.3% (80)
    247 Tuscaloosa, AL 31.5                  0.8 0.0% (66)
    248 Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX 31.2                  1.4 -2.3% (4)
    249 Rochester, NY 30.9                  8.4 -6.7% (106)
    250 Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, FL 30.8                  2.3 -2.8% 22
    251 Columbus, GA-AL 30.3                  1.5 0.0% (25)
    252 Merced, CA 30.1                  0.4 0.0% 60
    253 Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown, NY 30.0                  3.6 -2.7% (29)
    254 Salinas, CA 30.0                  1.5 -4.3% (9)
    255 Bangor, ME NECTA 29.9                  1.0 -9.1% (121)
    256 Idaho Falls, ID 29.6                  0.9 -6.9% 33
    257 Medford, OR 29.6                  1.4 -6.7% (147)
    258 Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL 29.3                  1.5 -4.2% (73)
    259 Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville, CA 28.3                14.7 -4.5% (11)
    260 Lake County-Kenosha County, IL-WI Metro Div 28.1                  3.7 -5.1% (133)
    261 Brownsville-Harlingen, TX 28.1                  1.1 3.0% 7
    262 Rapid City, SD 27.4                  0.8 -11.1% (137)
    263 Jackson, TN 27.3                  0.5 0.0% 31
    264 Owensboro, KY 26.9                  0.4 -14.3% 17
    265 Morristown, TN 26.8                  0.4 0.0% 5
    266 Norwich-New London, CT-RI NECTA 26.6                  1.3 0.0% (43)
    267 Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA 26.5                  0.8 0.0% 0
    268 Greensboro-High Point, NC 26.2                  4.9 -7.0% (124)
    269 Roanoke, VA 25.5                  1.7 -5.5% (70)
    270 Wichita, KS 25.3                  4.3 0.0% 39
    271 Sheboygan, WI 25.2                  0.2 0.0% 20
    272 Camden, NJ Metro Div 24.8                  6.2 -9.7% 38
    273 Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL 23.8                  1.8 -6.9% (109)
    274 Stockton, CA 23.5                  1.9 -6.6% (5)
    275 Appleton, WI 23.2                  1.5 -6.3% (73)
    276 Portland-South Portland-Biddeford, ME NECTA 22.2                  3.1 -2.1% 38
    277 Greeley, CO 22.0                  0.7 -4.8% 23
    278 Johnson City, TN 21.7                  1.4 2.5% 30
    279 Niles-Benton Harbor, MI 21.5                  0.5 0.0% 17
    280 Evansville, IN-KY 21.3                  1.9 -3.4% (34)
    281 Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA 21.3                  7.0 -2.8% (65)
    282 Baltimore City, MD 20.9                  3.8 -4.2% (109)
    283 Wilmington, DE-MD-NJ Metro Div 20.5                  4.4 -4.3% (44)
    284 Dayton, OH 19.7                  8.5 -3.8% (5)
    285 Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL 19.4                  0.4 0.0% 7
    286 Anniston-Oxford, AL 18.7                  0.6 0.0% 29
    287 Panama City-Lynn Haven-Panama City Beach, FL 18.6                  1.1 -3.0% 12
    288 Salem, OR 18.3                  1.0 -6.3% (100)
    289 Decatur, IL 18.2                  0.6 -10.0% (189)
    290 Ocala, FL 18.0                  0.9 0.0% (76)
    291 Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL 17.4                  1.9 -5.0% (93)
    292 Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton, MA  NECTA Division 17.4                  0.6 -14.3% (129)
    293 Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA 17.3                  2.0 -3.2% 12
    294 Visalia-Porterville, CA 17.3                  0.8 -4.0% 10
    295 Oklahoma City, OK 17.1                  8.1 -2.4% (52)
    296 Reno-Sparks, NV 16.9                  1.9 -3.4% (36)
    297 Springfield, IL 15.7                  1.4 -2.3% (4)
    298 Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, MA-NH  NECTA Division 15.5                  3.7 -4.3% (20)
    299 Topeka, KS 15.5                  1.4 -6.7% (226)
    300 Wausau, WI 15.1                  0.4 0.0% (2)
    301 Bloomington-Normal, IL 14.6                  0.7 -12.5% (149)
    302 Kalamazoo-Portage, MI 14.4                  0.9 0.0% 0
    303 Lewiston-Auburn, ME NECTA 13.9                  0.6 -19.0% (141)
    304 Corvallis, OR 13.8                  0.6 -14.3% 7
    305 Scranton–Wilkes-Barre, PA 13.3                  3.8 -3.4% (68)
    306 Danville, IL 12.9                  0.2 0.0% (9)
    307 Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL 12.5                  0.9 -6.7% (20)
    308 Modesto, CA 12.1                  0.9 0.0% 5
    309 Leominster-Fitchburg-Gardner, MA NECTA 11.9                  0.4 -7.7% (250)
    310 Erie, PA 10.5                  1.3 -7.1% (128)
    311 Midland, TX 10.3                  0.9 -15.6% (29)
    312 Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ 9.9                  0.6 -10.0% (38)
    313 San Angelo, TX 9.7                  0.9 -10.0% (59)
    314 New Haven, CT NECTA 9.5                  4.1 -4.7% (29)
    315 Rockford, IL 8.3                  1.3 -13.3% (64)
    316 Utica-Rome, NY 7.8                  1.5 -10.0% (36)
    317 Jackson, MI 4.7                  0.3 -10.0% (16)

  • Small Cities Information Jobs – 2014 Best Cities Rankings

    View the Best Cities for Information Jobs 2014 List

    2014 MSA Info Overall Ranking Area Weighted INDEX 2013 Information Employment 20012-13 Info Growth 2014 Ranking Change from 2013 – Small MSAs
    1 Janesville, WI 97.9                  1.5 18.4% 51
    2 Flint, MI 97.3                  4.2 9.5% 0
    3 Logan, UT-ID 93.3                  0.9 12.5% 6
    4 Abilene, TX 88.2                  1.2 9.1% 34
    5 Laredo, TX 88.1                  0.7 16.7% 11
    6 San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA 87.3                  1.4 7.7% 12
    7 Rochester, MN 87.2                  1.7 6.2% 0
    8 Fond du Lac, WI 86.5                  0.9 12.5% 79
    9 College Station-Bryan, TX 84.5                  1.3 0.0% (6)
    10 Portsmouth, NH-ME NECTA 84.0                  2.0 1.7% 4
    11 Lafayette, IN 80.5                  1.1 6.5% 19
    12 Tyler, TX 80.3                  2.3 2.9% (8)
    13 Champaign-Urbana, IL 80.1                  2.5 10.4% 104
    14 Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC 75.6                  1.0 0.0% (4)
    15 Cheyenne, WY 75.1                  1.1 0.0% (14)
    16 Binghamton, NY 74.6                  1.9 11.8% 35
    17 Sebastian-Vero Beach, FL 73.9                  0.7 0.0% 2
    18 Oshkosh-Neenah, WI 72.9                  1.6 2.1% 15
    19 Greenville, NC 72.6                  1.0 11.1% 24
    20 Bend, OR 72.4                  1.4 0.0% 63
    21 Saginaw-Saginaw Township North, MI 72.1                  1.4 7.7% 85
    22 Las Cruces, NM 71.9                  0.9 0.0% (5)
    23 Auburn-Opelika, AL 71.7                  0.5 0.0% 91
    24 Flagstaff, AZ 71.6                  0.4 0.0% 4
    25 Lewiston, ID-WA 70.8                  0.4 0.0% 1
    26 Cleveland, TN 70.1                  0.3 0.0% (3)
    27 Bay City, MI 70.1                  0.5 25.0% 53
    28 Eugene-Springfield, OR 69.7                  3.3 0.0% 22
    29 Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, TN-VA 68.7                  2.1 0.0% 121
    30 Muskegon-Norton Shores, MI 68.2                  0.8 14.3% 97
    31 Clarksville, TN-KY 67.7                  1.1 -3.0% (20)
    32 Columbus, IN 67.6                  0.5 0.0% (24)
    33 Wilmington, NC 66.8                  2.9 2.4% 46
    34 Fargo, ND-MN 66.2                  3.3 3.1% 44
    35 Prescott, AZ 65.9                  0.6 0.0% 0
    36 Burlington, NC 65.7                  0.5 0.0% 41
    37 Sherman-Denison, TX 65.2                  0.5 0.0% 54
    38 Bloomington, IN 65.0                  1.3 0.0% 1
    39 Rochester-Dover, NH-ME NECTA 64.8                  1.2 0.0% (27)
    40 St. Cloud, MN 64.8                  1.7 0.0% (4)
    41 Glens Falls, NY 64.5                  1.0 3.4% (4)
    42 Madera-Chowchilla, CA 63.7                  0.4 20.0% 17
    43 Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury, MA-NH NECTA Div 63.7                  0.9 -3.7% 14
    44 Pueblo, CO 63.4                  0.7 5.0% 21
    45 Yuma, AZ 62.4                  0.5 -16.7% (39)
    46 Sioux Falls, SD 62.2                  2.7 1.3% 40
    47 Kokomo, IN 61.9                  0.4 0.0% (22)
    48 Naples-Marco Island, FL 61.7                  1.5 0.0% (6)
    49 Victoria, TX 61.6                  0.5 0.0% 76
    50 Decatur, AL 61.3                  0.3 0.0% 16
    51 Ithaca, NY 61.3                  0.5 0.0% (2)
    52 Altoona, PA 61.2                  0.9 4.0% 30
    53 St. George, UT 60.6                  0.7 0.0% (38)
    54 Barnstable Town, MA NECTA 60.4                  1.6 0.0% (23)
    55 Gadsden, AL 60.1                  0.4 22.2% 98
    56 Fort Collins-Loveland, CO 59.2                  2.4 0.0% (15)
    57 Manchester, NH NECTA 59.1                  3.1 -3.1% (25)
    58 Santa Fe, NM 58.8                  0.9 13.0% 94
    59 Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, TX 58.6                  2.2 1.5% 1
    60 Grand Junction, CO 58.6                  0.8 0.0% 42
    61 Longview, TX 58.6                  1.4 0.0% (13)
    62 Yuba City, CA 58.5                  0.4 0.0% 0
    63 Fort Smith, AR-OK 58.1                  1.3 -4.9% (58)
    64 Lawton, OK 58.1                  0.5 0.0% 46
    65 Redding, CA 58.0                  0.6 5.6% 6
    66 Terre Haute, IN 57.7                  0.7 0.0% (21)
    67 South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI 57.2                  1.8 0.0% 18
    68 La Crosse, WI-MN 57.2                  1.1 0.0% (28)
    69 Cedar Rapids, IA 56.9                  4.9 -0.7% (15)
    70 Fayetteville, NC 56.6                  1.5 0.0% 22
    71 Texarkana, TX-Texarkana, AR 56.3                  0.5 0.0% (1)
    72 Grand Forks, ND-MN 55.3                  0.6 0.0% 31
    73 Kankakee-Bradley, IL 54.5                  0.5 0.0% 86
    74 Port St. Lucie, FL 54.3                  1.4 5.1% 42
    75 Holland-Grand Haven, MI 53.9                  0.7 0.0% (46)
    76 Wichita Falls, TX 53.7                  1.1 10.0% 28
    77 El Centro, CA 53.7                  0.4 0.0% (50)
    78 Coeur d’Alene, ID 53.0                  0.7 16.7% 64
    79 Peabody, MA  NECTA Division 51.2                  1.1 -2.9% (21)
    80 Anderson, IN 49.8                  0.5 0.0% 31
    81 Kingston, NY 49.0                  1.0 -6.3% (68)
    82 Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV 47.4                  2.3 0.0% 14
    83 Casper, WY 46.9                  0.5 -6.7% (61)
    84 Duluth, MN-WI 46.6                  1.5 4.5% 49
    85 Elkhart-Goshen, IN 46.6                  0.6 0.0% (22)
    86 Muncie, IN 46.2                  0.3 0.0% 2
    87 Dothan, AL 45.6                  0.7 0.0% (26)
    88 Racine, WI 45.3                  0.4 0.0% (33)
    89 Elmira, NY 44.6                  0.4 0.0% 11
    90 Pocatello, ID 44.4                  0.4 0.0% 47
    91 Burlington-South Burlington, VT NECTA 44.0                  2.2 0.0% 37
    92 Waco, TX 43.3                  1.3 0.0% 26
    93 Dover, DE 43.0                  0.5 0.0% 67
    94 Gainesville, FL 42.7                  1.5 2.3% 25
    95 Waterbury, CT NECTA 42.0                  0.6 0.0% 6
    96 Vineland-Millville-Bridgeton, NJ 41.6                  0.8 0.0% 19
    97 Amarillo, TX 41.4                  1.4 0.0% (13)
    98 Bismarck, ND 41.3                  0.9 0.0% (1)
    99 Charleston, WV 40.7                  1.9 1.8% 14
    100 Napa, CA 40.6                  0.6 0.0% (24)
    101 Palm Coast, FL 40.1                  0.9 0.0% 23
    102 Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ 40.0                  0.8 0.0% 18
    103 Eau Claire, WI 39.8                  0.9 0.0% (14)
    104 Fairbanks, AK 39.7                  0.5 0.0% (32)
    105 Nashua, NH-MA  NECTA Division 39.4                  1.9 -5.0% (84)
    106 New Bedford, MA NECTA 38.6                  0.6 0.0% (7)
    107 Pittsfield, MA NECTA 38.5                  0.5 0.0% 1
    108 Vallejo-Fairfield, CA 38.1                  1.1 -2.9% (10)
    109 Odessa, TX 37.7                  0.5 0.0% (63)
    110 Hanford-Corcoran, CA 37.5                  0.2 0.0% (16)
    111 Lubbock, TX 35.1                  3.9 -0.8% 24
    112 Punta Gorda, FL 33.6                  0.4 0.0% (5)
    113 Chico, CA 32.2                  1.0 -6.3% (93)
    114 Johnstown, PA 31.7                  0.7 -4.3% (45)
    115 Tuscaloosa, AL 31.5                  0.8 0.0% (42)
    116 Columbus, GA-AL 30.3                  1.5 0.0% (21)
    117 Merced, CA 30.1                  0.4 0.0% 39
    118 Salinas, CA 30.0                  1.5 -4.3% (13)
    119 Bangor, ME NECTA 29.9                  1.0 -9.1% (63)
    120 Idaho Falls, ID 29.6                  0.9 -6.9% 16
    121 Medford, OR 29.6                  1.4 -6.7% (74)
    122 Brownsville-Harlingen, TX 28.1                  1.1 3.0% 0
    123 Rapid City, SD 27.4                  0.8 -11.1% (70)
    124 Jackson, TN 27.3                  0.5 0.0% 17
    125 Owensboro, KY 26.9                  0.4 -14.3% 6
    126 Morristown, TN 26.8                  0.4 0.0% (3)
    127 Norwich-New London, CT-RI NECTA 26.6                  1.3 0.0% (34)
    128 Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA 26.5                  0.8 0.0% (7)
    129 Sheboygan, WI 25.2                  0.2 0.0% 9
    130 Appleton, WI 23.2                  1.5 -6.3% (49)
    131 Greeley, CO 22.0                  0.7 -4.8% 16
    132 Johnson City, TN 21.7                  1.4 2.5% 22
    133 Niles-Benton Harbor, MI 21.5                  0.5 0.0% 10
    134 Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL 19.4                  0.4 0.0% 5
    135 Anniston-Oxford, AL 18.7                  0.6 0.0% 23
    136 Panama City-Lynn Haven-Panama City Beach, FL 18.6                  1.1 -3.0% 10
    137 Salem, OR 18.3                  1.0 -6.3% (62)
    138 Decatur, IL 18.2                  0.6 -10.0% (94)
    139 Ocala, FL 18.0                  0.9 0.0% (49)
    140 Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton, MA  NECTA Division 17.4                  0.6 -14.3% (72)
    141 Visalia-Porterville, CA 17.3                  0.8 -4.0% 10
    142 Springfield, IL 15.7                  1.4 -2.3% (2)
    143 Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, MA-NH  NECTA Division 15.5                  3.7 -4.3% (14)
    144 Topeka, KS 15.5                  1.4 -6.7% (110)
    145 Wausau, WI 15.1                  0.4 0.0% 0
    146 Bloomington-Normal, IL 14.6                  0.7 -12.5% (82)
    147 Kalamazoo-Portage, MI 14.4                  0.9 0.0% 2
    148 Lewiston-Auburn, ME NECTA 13.9                  0.6 -19.0% (81)
    149 Corvallis, OR 13.8                  0.6 -14.3% 6
    150 Danville, IL 12.9                  0.2 0.0% (6)
    151 Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL 12.5                  0.9 -6.7% (17)
    152 Leominster-Fitchburg-Gardner, MA NECTA 11.9                  0.4 -7.7% (128)
    153 Erie, PA 10.5                  1.3 -7.1% (79)
    154 Midland, TX 10.3                  0.9 -15.6% (22)
    155 Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ 9.9                  0.6 -10.0% (29)
    156 San Angelo, TX 9.7                  0.9 -10.0% (44)
    158 Rockford, IL 8.3                  1.3 -13.3% (49)
    159 Utica-Rome, NY 7.8                  1.5 -10.0% (29)
    160 Jackson, MI 4.7                  0.3 -10.0% (12)

  • The Best Small And Midsize Cities For Jobs 2014

    In the classic television show “The Honeymooners,” many jokes were wrung out of bus driver Ralph Cramden’s membership in the International Brotherhood of Loyal Raccoons, headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota. When Ralph mentioned in one episode to his wife, Alice, that among the privileges is that they could be buried at the “Raccoon National Cemetery” in Bismarck, Alice’s reply was that it made her not know “if I want to live or die.”

    That’s worth a chuckle, but perhaps it’s time to reconsider Bismarck, which ranked first out of the 398 metro areas we considered for our annual roundup of The Best Cities For Jobs. A metro area of 120,000 located in the country’s fastest-growing state and near the vast Bakken oil fields, the number of jobs in Bismarck is up 3% over the last year and a sizzling 32.4% since 2002. You might not want to be buried there, but at least you can get a job before that.

    Bismarck’s growth, although remarkable, is mirrored in many smaller places. When we look at economic growth in America, we tend to focus on large metropolitan areas (we draw the bar at 5 million people and up). However over 40% of Americans live outside these big cities and their much more populous suburbs, notes demographer Wendell Cox. They reside in smaller cities and towns, the destination of choice for many of the domestic migrants fleeing the largest metropolitan areas for the better part of the last decade.

    View the Best Cities for Jobs 2014 List

    These places are often seen by pundits as economic backwaters, but in fact small and mid-sized metro areas take up 16 of the top 20 spots of our overall list of The Best Cities For Jobs. For the most part, it is the smaller markets with under 150,000 jobs that are growing the fastest, but several mid-sized cities (between 150,000 and 450,000 nonfarm jobs) also are outperforming, including Boulder, Colo., which ranks first on our medium-sized cities list, and Provo-Orem, Utah, which ranks second. These areas are as varied as America. Some fit the resource-dominated archetype often associated with smaller cities and towns but others are driven by industry and even tech growth.

    The Energy Hubs

    As we saw with our large cities list, metro areas that are connected to the energy economy have been peak performers. Beyond Bismarck, our list of the Best Small Cities For Jobs includes Greeley (fifth) and Ft. Collins (17th), both located near the oilfields of northern Colorado; and near the west Texas oilfields, the cities of Midland (sixth), San Angelo (11th), Odessa (15th) and Lubbock (16th).

    Energy jobs pay an average of about $80,000 a year according to BLS data. But this wealth is not only for geologists or those with oil stains on the hands. The money brought into these communities has also sparked strong growth in such fields as manufacturing, construction and business services in virtually all these towns. In Midland, for example, natural resources and construction employment has surged 50% since 2008, but wholesale trade, manufacturing, business and financial services have also expanded strongly.

    Manufacturing Comeback Cities

    Plenty of old industrial cities are at the bottom of the 240 MSAs we ranked for our small cities list, including 238th place Danville, Ill., which has lost 6% of its jobs since 2008, and second from last, Michigan City-La Porte, Ind., where employment has dropped 6.8% over the same span. But some of the highest fliers are also industrial towns. This includes second-ranked Elkhart-Goshen, Ind., which rose a remarkable 63 places from last year on our list, and from 233rd back in 2010. The recreational vehicle manufacturing hub suffered steep job losses during the Recession, but industrial employment has risen 24% since 2010.

    Like energy, industrial jobs tend to pay more than most, and have a strong effect on other sectors. Since 2010 in the Elkhart-Goshen area, employment in wholesale trade and business services has expanded at double-digit percentage paces, while retail employment has shot up a healthy 7.4%. In Grand Rapids-Wyoming, Mich., which ranks third on our list of the Best Midsize Cities For Jobs, manufacturing employment is up almost 14.7% since 2010 while job growth has also been strong in medical services, education, and business services. Grand Rapids has 4.9% more jobs now than in 2002, a far sight better than larger industrial metro areas like Detroit, where employment has declined 16.2% over the same period.

    But most of the comeback industrial towns are not in the Midwest but the Southeast, which has gotten the bulk of new investment from foreign automakers and steelmakers. This includes Auburn-Opelika, Ala., No. 7 on our small cities list, where there has been a surge in employment by auto parts suppliers. The home of 25,000-studentAuburn University, it has also seen strong growth in business services and hospitality. Two South Carolina metro areas, Anderson (12th) and Spartanburg (13th), have also benefited from the industrial resurgence in the region.

    College Towns

    We may be approaching the end of a “higher education bubble,” as Glenn Reynolds and others have suggested, but at least for now many college towns in the Midwest, the southeast and the Intermountain West continue to show strong job growth.

    In Columbia, Mo., home to the 35,000-student University of Missouri, employment has expanded 9.7% since 2008 and 4% in 2013, placing it third on our small cities list. In ninth-place College Station, Texas, the presence of Texas A&M (56,000 students) has sparked growth in the information and business services sectors, in which employment has expanded 18.2% and 14.2%, respectively, since 2008, while leisure and hospitality employment is up 29.5% over the same period. Higher education has continued to be a strong and growing industry for these small towns, although its long-term sustainability may be hampered by a lethargic economy and burgeoning student debt.

    Places For The Rich And Famous

    In this most unequal of recoveries, some of the biggest winners are cities that cater to the rich and aging baby boomers. People over 55 control upward of three-quarters of the country’s wealth and more than half all discretionary dollars. And unlike the millennials and Xers who follow them, this generation has generally profited more from the recent jump in equity and property prices.

    Fourth on our small cities list is St. George in scenic southwestern Utah, a fast-growing community for retirees, where employment shot up 5.38% in 2013. Naples-Marco Island, Fla. (eighth), long a major lure to northern snowbirds, is home to a fast-growing economy built around hospitality and construction. Napa, Calif. (18th), has emerged as a major beneficiary of spending by wealthy retirees from the booming San Francisco Bay Area.

    The Future For Smaller Cities

    Big city mayors are wont to proclaim that they’re on the cutting edge of economic life. Big cities are where “the action is,” Atlanta’s Karim Reed said at a recent confab in Chicago. But as our roundup of the cities with the strongest employment growth shows, many of the hottest economies in the country are in places that most urbanistas would write off as the boondocks. Some of them, may only do well as long the energy and agriculture booms continue, but many other will benefit as boomers continue to seek out comfortable, less congested, and often less expensive, places to retire. These smaller places may also benefit as millennials start seeking to buy homes and raise families. And with the expansion of communication technology, they may find it increasingly easy to perform sophisticated work from smaller places. America’s economy may still remain dominated by its giant metro areas, but it would be inaccurate to discount the role of smaller places in the evolving American economy.

    View the Best Cities for Jobs 2014 List

    This story originally appeared at Forbes.

    Joel Kotkin is executive editor of NewGeography.com and Distinguished Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University, and a member of the editorial board of the Orange County Register. He is author of The City: A Global History and The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050. His most recent study, The Rise of Postfamilialism, has been widely discussed and distributed internationally. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.

    Michael Shires, Ph.D. is a professor at Pepperdine University School of Public Policy.

    Boulder, CO photo by Phil Armitage.

  • The Best Cities For Jobs 2014

    As the recovery from the Great Recession stretches into its fifth year, the locus of economic momentum has shifted. In the early years of the recession, the cities that created the most jobs — sometimes the only ones — were either government- or military-dominated (Washington, D.C.;  Kileen-Temple-Fort Hood, Texas), or were powered by the energy boom in Texas, Oklahoma and the northern Great Plains.

    Now the recovery has shifted to a new group of cities that have benefited from the boom on Wall Street and the parallel IPO surge in Silicon Valley — call them asset inflation cities. Last year the S&P 500 clocked its biggest rise since 1997, helped by aggressive monetary easing by the Federal Reserve and a return to the stock market by investors who had retreated to the sidelines after the financial crisis. The high times have brought on a surge in IPOs: 2013 was the busiest year for public offerings in over a decade, and the pace has if anything quickened this year, with healthcare and technology offerings leading the way. M&A has also surged, with some very impressive valuations in the tech sector, such as Facebook’s $19 billion purchase of 50-person What’s App. The biggest beneficiaries employment-wise: the Bay Area, Silicon Valley and New York City.

    View the Best Cities for Jobs 2014 List

    Our rankings are based on short-, medium- and long-term job creation, going back to 2002, and factor in momentum — whether growth is slowing or accelerating. So the top of our list includes both cities that have had the most striking comebacks since the Great Recession as well as those that have consistently created jobs over the long haul. We have compiled separate rankings for large cities (nonfarm employment over 450,000), which are our focus this week, as well as medium-size cities (between 150,000 and 450,000 nonfarm jobs) and small cities (less than 150,000 nonfarm jobs) in order to make the comparisons more relevant to each category. (For a detailed description of our methodology, click here.) Small cities, as a rule, show more volatility than their larger counterparts since the decision of one major business to expand or contract can have an enormous effect on a relatively tiny employment base. (Check back next week for our ranking of mid-size and small cities).

    Big Money, Big Gains

    Yet even among the largest metropolitan areas, shifts in the economy can have a dramatic impact. This is clearly the case with the two metro areas that top our list this year, first-place San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif. (aka Silicon Valley), where the number of jobs surged 4.3% last year, and San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, where employment expanded 3.6%. Before the current tech boom, largely centered on social media companies, these metro areas were lagging badly. In 2010, San Jose ranked 47th on this list out of the 66 metro areas with more than 450,000 nonfarm jobs and San Francisco was 42nd.

    The information sector has driven this remarkable change in fortunes. Since 2008, the number of information jobs in the San Jose area has risen 37% to 60,800, while in San Francisco, employment in that category has grown 28% to 52,300 jobs. This has been accompanied by strong increases in such high-wage fields as professional and business services, where Silicon Valley has clocked 10% growth, and San Francisco twice that, adding 42,500 jobs, since 2008.

    The housing bubble helped to launch New York City from its doldrums a decade ago (it rose from 54th on our list of the Best Cities For Jobs in 2005 to 22th in 2008). In recent years, New York has been well served by Washington’s bailout of the financial sector, which accounts for roughly 15% of the metro area GDP — the Big Apple climbed to 10th place in our ranking in 2010 and to seventh this year. This is in good part a result of asset inflation; the number of finance jobs in New York has actually declined in recent years, but with a lot of extra spending money in the pockets of the city’s relatively high concentration of wealthy people, some jobs are being created. Most of the growth has been in hospitality, health and education and retail, fields that do not generally offer top salaries. New York City has also seen steady growth in information jobs — although at only a third the rate of Silicon Valley — as well as professional and business services.

    Bring On The Usual Suspects

    Many of the other metro areas at the top of our 2014 list have been adding jobs consistently over the past decade. Some are also beneficiaries of the high-tech boom, though mostly as a result of big West Coast companies deciding to site new offices in these attractive locations. In third place is perennial high-flyer Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, Texas, where the number of jobs grew 4.1% last year, and 13.7% since 2008. Raleigh-Cary N.C. places fourth (3.9%/7.2% over the same time spans). These metro areas routinely attract people and companies from California and the Northeast with lower taxes and real estate costs that, on an income basis, are as much as half those in the asset-rich areas.

    Unlike the asset-based economies, which ebb and flow with the markets, these and the other usual suspects have a record of consistent growth not only in jobs but also population. This reflects the more blue-collar economic foundation of many of these cities, based on energy, manufacturing and logistics — sectors that tend to create higher-paid blue- and white-collar jobs. Growth has continued in these areas throughout all the changes in the economy, which has encouraged long-term migration and investment.

    Viewed over the last five years, for example, fifth-place Houston has expanded its total employment by 218,000 jobs, growing at the same rate as both the San Francisco and San Jose metro areas—an impressive feat given that it is almost 20 percent larger than the two Silicon Valley cities combined. But an arguably bigger difference can be seen in demographics. The Houston metro area’s population has grown over 50% faster since 2010 than the Bay Area regions, and roughly twice as fast as New York. Houston is on track this year to build more new housing units than the entire state of California. This combination of rapid population and job growth – the former itself a major source of jobs in construction and services — can be seen in places such as No. 6 Nashville-Franklin-Murfreesboro, Tenn.; No. 10 Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, Colo.; and No. 14 Charlotte-Gastonia-Round Hill, N.C.

    The Sun Belt Bounces Back

    Perhaps the biggest surprise on this year’s list is the resurgence of the Sun Belt metro areas that were hardest hit by the housing bust. Ever since, the Northeast-centric pundit class has been giddily predicting these cities’ demise. Strangled by high energy prices, cooked by record droughts, rejected by a new generation of urban-centric millennials, the Atlantic proclaimed this vast southern region to be where the American dream has gone to die.

    But the data show that many of these metro areas are in the midst of a powerful comeback. Take Orlando-Kissimmee, Fla., ranked eighth this year, up 23 places from last year. Similarly Phoenix has risen 17 places from last year to 22nd and is way up from its 51st place ranking in 2010.

    Perhaps even more surprising  is the resurgence of 17th-place Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., which ranked near the bottom of the big city table at 63rd in 2010. Now foreclosures have dropped and job growth has picked up. In fact, the Inland Empire is now doing considerably better in job creation than Southern California’s older urban regions, including Los Angeles-Long Beach (37th), Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine (34th) and San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos (32nd).

    Bringing Up The Rear

    Many large cities continue to lag. Philadelphia, despite being close to New York and its considerable urban amenities, ranks 51st, with paltry 0.9% job growth since 2008. Not much better off, despite its connections to the Obama White House, is Chicago, which places 47th. Not only is the Windy City not adding many jobs (0.5% growth since 2008) but every county in the area, according to recent Census numbers, is losing migrants to other parts of the country.

    But Chicago is certainly doing better than the host of old industrial cities that continue to dominate the nether reaches of our survey. These include last-place Camden, N.J.; second to last Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich.; Cleveland-Elyria- Mentor, Ohio (62nd), Kansas City, Mo. (61st), Newark-Union, N.J. (60th), and St. Louis (59th). All these cities, apart from Kansas City, have occupied the bottom of our list for nearly a decade now, and seem unlikely to move up in the immediate future.

    View the Best Cities for Jobs 2014 List

    What’s Next

    It seems clear that as long as the tech and financial sectors retain their momentum, New York and the Bay Area should continue to fare well. But if asset growth slows, these areas could slip quickly.

    The Texas cities and the other usual suspects are probably a better bet to continue to generate new jobs, but they too face challenges. If the economy slows down energy prices will follow, hampering growth in energy meccas like Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. A surge in interest rates could undermine the comeback of the Sun Belt cities, which remain highly dependent on housing and construction-related economic activity.

    But overall, for reasons ranging from housing costs to business climate, we expect the usual suspects to remain high on our list of the best cities for jobs for years to come, in part due to their growing populations. What remains unknown is how the evolving industrial structure of the economy will affect the slower-growing cities along the coasts whose fortunes have tended to ebb and flow in recent years.

    This story originally appeared at Forbes.

    Joel Kotkin is executive editor of NewGeography.com and Distinguished Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University, and a member of the editorial board of the Orange County Register. He is author of The City: A Global History and The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050. His most recent study, The Rise of Postfamilialism, has been widely discussed and distributed internationally. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.

    Michael Shires, Ph.D. is a professor at Pepperdine University School of Public Policy.

    Photo: Market Street, San Francisco by Wendell Cox.

  • All Cities Rankings – 2014 Best Cities for Job Growth

    Read about how we selected the 2014 Best Cities for Job Growth

    This year’s rankings use five measures of growth to rank all 398 metro areas for which full data sets were available from the past 10 years.  "Large" areas include those with a current nonfarm employment base of at least 450,000 jobs. "Midsize" areas range from 150,000 to 450,000 jobs. "Small" areas have as many as 150,000 jobs.  This year’s rankings reflect the current size of each MSAs employment.   Only one MSA—Modesto, CA—changed size categories moving from “Small” to “Midsized.” In the instances where the analysis refers to changes in ranking order within the size categories, this MSAs changes are reported as if they had been included in their current category in the prior year.

    2014 Overall Ranking Area 2014 Weighted INDEX  2013 Nonfarm Emplmt (1000s)  Overall Mvmnt 2013 Overall Rank 
    1 Bismarck, ND 96.1 69.8 53 54
    2 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 94.2 982.2 26 28
    3 San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA Metropolitan Division 94.1 1,087.8 6 9
    4 Elkhart-Goshen, IN 94.1 119.2 111 115
    5 Columbia, MO 92.3 101.8 64 69
    6 Boulder, CO 88.7 175.6 1 7
    7 Provo-Orem, UT 87.9 209.3 4 11
    8 St. George, UT 87.9 52.2 137 145
    9 Greeley, CO 87.7 92.0 29 38
    10 Midland, TX 87.3 87.5 -9 1
    11 Auburn-Opelika, AL 87.1 58.8 3 14
    12 Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX 87.0 881.1 30 42
    13 Raleigh-Cary, NC 86.2 552.5 32 45
    14 Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI 85.9 410.2 33 47
    15 Naples-Marco Island, FL 84.9 129.2 152 167
    16 College Station-Bryan, TX 84.8 104.3 183 199
    17 Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX 84.7 2,825.8 6 23
    18 El Centro, CA 84.7 52.9 64 82
    19 San Angelo, TX 84.4 48.0 -14 5
    20 Anderson, SC 84.1 66.3 314 334
    21 Spartanburg, SC 83.8 131.0 60 81
    22 Jonesboro, AR 82.7 53.0 -14 8
    23 Odessa, TX 82.4 74.0 -21 2
    24 Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN 82.3 822.8 -9 15
    25 Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL 82.0 222.9 155 180
    26 Lubbock, TX 81.9 135.1 32 58
    27 Lafayette, LA 81.9 161.8 8 35
    28 Fort Collins-Loveland, CO 81.6 145.4 22 50
    29 Napa, CA 81.3 67.2 -11 18
    30 New York City, NY 81.2 4,018.3 58 88
    31 Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL 81.0 1,085.2 109 140
    32 Fargo, ND-MN 80.8 133.9 8 40
    33 Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA 80.3 101.0 22 55
    34 Victoria, TX 79.8 54.7 -1 33
    35 Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX Metropolitan Division 79.7 2,199.4 -11 24
    36 Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO 79.7 1,305.4 5 41
    37 Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metropolitan Division 79.6 931.3 -17 20
    38 Columbus, IN 79.5 49.8 -35 3
    39 Iowa City, IA 79.1 98.1 70 109
    40 San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX 79.0 913.1 16 56
    41 Bakersfield-Delano, CA 79.0 253.7 -19 22
    42 Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA 78.7 340.1 44 86
    43 Salt Lake City, UT 78.7 670.4 -27 16
    44 Laredo, TX 78.4 97.0 -12 32
    45 Boise City-Nampa, ID 78.2 276.5 39 84
    46 Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury, MA-NH  NECTA Division 77.3 81.6 -10 36
    47 Cleveland, TN 77.3 44.7 -43 4
    48 Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC 77.3 888.0 -14 34
    49 McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX 76.3 237.9 11 60
    50 Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA Metropolitan Division 76.3 1,522.7 15 65
    51 Ames, IA 76.2 50.8 122 173
    52 Bowling Green, KY 76.1 64.5 48 100
    53 Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR-MO 75.8 216.9 -41 12
    54 Brownsville-Harlingen, TX 75.4 135.3 23 77
    55 Oklahoma City, OK 75.2 616.8 12 67
    56 Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA 75.0 1,254.7 159 215
    57 Palm Coast, FL 75.0 20.4 61 118
    58 Holland-Grand Haven, MI 74.8 115.4 -19 39
    59 Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL Metropolitan Division 74.6 1,081.8 112 171
    60 Coeur d’Alene, ID 74.5 55.5 242 302
    61 Myrtle Beach-North Myrtle Beach-Conway, SC 74.3 114.2 90 151
    62 Sioux Falls, SD 73.5 143.7 -18 44
    63 Savannah, GA 73.4 161.7 48 111
    64 Baton Rouge, LA 72.9 389.9 -16 48
    65 Logan, UT-ID 72.5 56.6 91 156
    66 Winchester, VA-WV 72.4 59.2 -45 21
    67 Wilmington, NC 71.9 142.6 81 148
    68 Cheyenne, WY 71.8 46.2 -43 25
    69 Portsmouth, NH-ME NECTA 71.6 56.5 -39 30
    70 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA 71.4 1,049.3 113 183
    71 Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, TX 71.4 132.7 49 120
    72 Bend, OR 71.3 64.6 232 304
    73 Greenville-Mauldin-Easley, SC 71.2 316.4 90 163
    74 Columbus, OH 71.0 984.0 -12 62
    75 Jacksonville, FL 70.9 620.0 68 143
    76 Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton, MA  NECTA Division 70.9 93.2 29 105
    77 Fresno, CA 70.7 310.7 174 251
    78 Springfield, MO 70.7 202.5 -7 71
    79 Corpus Christi, TX 70.3 188.7 -60 19
    80 Gainesville, GA 70.1 77.3 81 161
    81 Merced, CA 70.0 61.2 -15 66
    82 Ocean City, NJ 69.8 36.7 75 157
    83 Chico, CA 69.7 75.5 182 265
    84 Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ 69.7 1,849.2 95 179
    85 Punta Gorda, FL 69.6 44.1 208 293
    86 Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville, SC 69.5 310.0 -35 51
    87 San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA 69.4 106.4 -74 13
    88 Morgantown, WV 69.3 68.4 9 97
    89 Greenville, NC 69.1 82.2 -62 27
    90 Kokomo, IN 68.9 44.2 11 101
    91 New Bedford, MA NECTA 68.7 70.1 -45 46
    92 Durham-Chapel Hill, NC 68.6 288.7 -12 80
    93 Pascagoula, MS 68.6 57.9 237 330
    94 Asheville, NC 68.5 176.7 -9 85
    95 Olympia, WA 68.3 104.3 153 248
    96 North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL 68.2 260.4 88 184
    97 Visalia-Porterville, CA 68.0 114.6 7 104
    98 Mankato-North Mankato, MN 67.9 55.3 32 130
    99 Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA NECTA Division 67.6 1,782.5 -25 74
    100 St. Cloud, MN 67.4 104.2 -2 98
    101 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA 67.3 2,435.7 6 107
    102 Bellingham, WA 67.2 85.3 182 284
    103 West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach, FL Metropolitan Division 67.2 551.7 79 182
    104 Lincoln, NE 66.5 183.5 -8 96
    105 New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA 66.1 550.8 7 112
    106 Tyler, TX 65.8 97.3 75 181
    107 Ogden-Clearfield, UT 65.7 205.9 -28 79
    108 Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, FL Metropolitan Division 65.6 762.9 79 187
    109 Port St. Lucie, FL 65.4 129.3 117 226
    110 Missoula, MT 64.6 57.9 25 135
    111 Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA 64.5 40.1 -17 94
    112 Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA 64.4 46.4 173 285
    113 Idaho Falls, ID 64.3 50.9 76 189
    114 Trenton-Ewing, NJ 64.3 249.8 -25 89
    115 Kennewick-Pasco-Richland, WA 64.0 102.3 180 295
    116 Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford, VA 64.0 73.7 -87 29
    117 Barnstable Town, MA NECTA 63.8 96.1 -100 17
    118 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL 63.7 1,192.3 7 125
    119 Indianapolis-Carmel, IN 63.6 938.9 -51 68
    120 Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA 63.6 93.5 30 150
    121 Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA 63.4 185.5 192 313
    122 Modesto, CA 63.3 157.6 111 233
    123 Monroe, MI 62.8 41.1 253 376
    124 Casper, WY 62.7 42.1 -71 53
    125 Honolulu, HI 62.7 462.1 -12 113
    126 Oakland-Fremont-Hayward, CA Metropolitan Division 62.2 1,045.3 144 270
    127 San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA 62.0 1,325.0 -4 123
    128 Las Vegas-Paradise, NV 61.6 862.0 122 250
    129 Ithaca, NY 61.5 69.4 -8 121
    130 Pueblo, CO 61.4 59.8 65 195
    131 La Crosse, WI-MN 61.4 77.4 3 134
    132 Longview, TX 61.1 101.2 -83 49
    133 Sherman-Denison, TX 61.1 44.6 9 142
    134 Battle Creek, MI 61.0 58.4 -2 132
    135 Flagstaff, AZ 60.8 63.0 6 141
    136 Springfield, OH 60.8 52.8 204 340
    137 Dover, DE 60.6 66.9 215 352
    138 Vallejo-Fairfield, CA 60.6 126.9 37 175
    139 Clarksville, TN-KY 59.9 88.5 -76 63
    140 Grand Forks, ND-MN 59.8 57.2 -79 61
    141 Jacksonville, NC 59.8 48.9 -35 106
    142 Billings, MT 59.7 81.8 -111 31
    143 Madison, WI 59.5 360.2 88 231
    144 Lake Charles, LA 59.3 94.1 -69 75
    145 Lafayette, IN 59.1 99.8 -119 26
    146 El Paso, TX 58.9 289.2 -43 103
    147 Lebanon, PA 58.8 51.4 -23 124
    148 Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA Metropolitan Division 58.7 1,473.5 28 176
    149 Northern Virginia, VA 58.7 1,372.9 -58 91
    150 Great Falls, MT 58.5 36.3 97 247
    151 Dubuque, IA 58.3 59.2 -78 73
    152 Framingham, MA  NECTA Division 58.0 162.3 -6 146
    153 Ann Arbor, MI 57.8 209.6 -81 72
    154 Madera-Chowchilla, CA 57.7 35.2 88 242
    155 Louisville-Jefferson County, KY-IN 57.2 629.4 -63 92
    156 Sioux City, IA-NE-SD 57.0 76.4 3 159
    157 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA Metropolitan Division 56.9 4,171.3 84 241
    158 Stockton, CA 56.7 203.2 86 244
    159 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Division 56.6 2,516.1 -42 117
    160 Lake County-Kenosha County, IL-WI Metropolitan Division 55.9 397.7 115 275
    161 Athens-Clarke County, GA 55.6 90.7 37 198
    162 Charlottesville, VA 55.2 104.0 134 296
    163 Janesville, WI 55.2 64.8 153 316
    164 Tulsa, OK 55.0 436.2 -12 152
    165 Owensboro, KY 54.8 52.8 -159 6
    166 Reno-Sparks, NV 54.7 201.1 128 294
    167 St. Joseph, MO-KS 54.7 63.0 -80 87
    168 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI 54.7 1,808.0 -73 95
    169 Kansas City, KS 54.6 449.6 -112 57
    170 Eau Claire, WI 54.6 83.3 -44 126
    171 Tuscaloosa, AL 54.5 97.7 -33 138
    172 Sumter, SC 54.3 38.3 37 209
    173 Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA 54.3 478.8 -18 155
    174 Fond du Lac, WI 54.1 47.0 179 353
    175 Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, MI Metropolitan Division 54.0 1,145.8 60 235
    176 Redding, CA 54.0 61.0 201 377
    177 Richmond, VA 53.9 637.6 -63 114
    178 Salem, OR 53.6 146.3 149 327
    179 Joplin, MO 53.6 82.3 14 193
    180 Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta, CA 53.3 172.7 -104 76
    181 Columbia, SC 52.9 364.5 -7 174
    182 Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL 52.7 79.5 -74 108
    183 Prescott, AZ 52.5 57.5 103 286
    184 Colorado Springs, CO 52.1 257.3 -16 168
    185 Elizabethtown, KY 52.1 49.7 -15 170
    186 Anchorage, AK 51.8 176.1 -58 128
    187 Abilene, TX 51.5 67.5 -88 99
    188 Williamsport, PA 50.9 56.3 -178 10
    189 Panama City-Lynn Haven-Panama City Beach, FL 50.9 72.1 140 329
    190 Rochester, MN 50.6 107.6 -107 83
    191 Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV 50.5 104.2 -139 52
    192 Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville, CA 50.5 872.5 79 271
    193 Las Cruces, NM 50.0 70.6 71 264
    194 Nassau-Suffolk, NY Metropolitan Division 49.9 1,281.6 -63 131
    195 Yuba City, CA 49.4 39.1 92 287
    196 Florence, SC 49.3 85.5 121 317
    197 Burlington-South Burlington, VT NECTA 49.3 118.2 -138 59
    198 Fort Wayne, IN 49.1 212.9 -44 154
    199 Jackson, TN 49.0 61.7 -129 70
    200 Duluth, MN-WI 48.6 132.8 38 238
    201 Lansing-East Lansing, MI 48.5 224.4 154 355
    202 Yakima, WA 48.4 80.1 0 202
    203 Huntsville, AL 48.1 213.3 75 278
    204 Wheeling, WV-OH 47.5 68.4 99 303
    205 Oshkosh-Neenah, WI 47.3 94.4 -28 177
    206 Harrisonburg, VA 47.2 65.0 -116 90
    207 New Haven, CT NECTA 46.7 277.6 50 257
    208 Danbury, CT NECTA 46.4 69.9 -11 197
    209 Grand Junction, CO 46.3 60.8 4 213
    210 Wilmington, DE-MD-NJ Metropolitan Division 46.2 345.1 79 289
    211 Lexington-Fayette, KY 46.2 258.2 -168 43
    212 Lawrence, KS 46.1 52.1 -50 162
    213 Tacoma, WA Metropolitan Division 46.1 278.7 17 230
    214 Amarillo, TX 46.0 114.1 -54 160
    215 Medford, OR 45.7 78.3 105 320
    216 State College, PA 45.5 76.2 -12 204
    217 Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL 45.3 159.2 17 234
    218 Edison-New Brunswick, NJ Metropolitan Division 45.3 1,016.4 -74 144
    219 Cincinnati-Middletown, OH-KY-IN 44.8 1,027.0 55 274
    220 Knoxville, TN 44.7 335.8 -73 147
    221 Peabody, MA  NECTA Division 44.6 103.7 -119 102
    222 Eugene-Springfield, OR 44.6 146.2 111 333
    223 Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA 44.2 329.6 -38 185
    224 Longview, WA 44.1 37.4 39 263
    225 Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL Metropolitan Division 43.9 3,787.2 33 258
    226 Hattiesburg, MS 43.8 60.4 -26 200
    227 Rapid City, SD 43.8 61.4 -17 210
    228 Corvallis, OR 43.6 39.3 -75 153
    229 Manchester, NH NECTA 43.1 101.3 -23 206
    230 Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, FL 43.1 160.9 -8 222
    231 Green Bay, WI 42.9 170.0 -94 137
    232 Fairbanks, AK 42.8 38.0 -74 158
    233 Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA 42.8 289.3 -5 228
    234 Canton-Massillon, OH 42.6 170.3 -124 110
    235 Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL 42.2 198.9 66 301
    236 Spokane, WA 42.0 215.0 -35 201
    237 Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA 41.7 92.1 -144 93
    238 Waco, TX 41.6 107.0 -160 78
    239 Salinas, CA 41.6 126.7 71 310
    240 Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL 41.5 55.8 21 261
    241 Winston-Salem, NC 41.3 209.3 -29 212
    242 Kankakee-Bradley, IL 41.0 44.2 -64 178
    243 Hinesville-Fort Stewart, GA 41.0 19.9 36 279
    244 Akron, OH 41.0 330.3 -48 196
    245 Monroe, LA 40.9 78.6 -8 237
    246 Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, MA-NH  NECTA Division 40.8 120.4 -74 172
    247 Gulfport-Biloxi, MS 40.6 107.2 138 385
    248 Lawton, OK 40.6 44.3 8 256
    249 Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown, NY 40.5 254.8 -55 194
    250 Gainesville, FL 40.5 131.5 -86 164
    251 Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT NECTA 40.5 413.2 97 348
    252 Columbus, GA-AL 40.5 121.8 -9 243
    253 Muskegon-Norton Shores, MI 40.2 61.8 -137 116
    254 Gadsden, AL 40.2 36.9 83 337
    255 Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ 40.0 345.7 -116 139
    256 Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT NECTA 40.0 553.1 -27 229
    257 Lewiston, ID-WA 40.0 26.5 81 338
    258 Appleton, WI 39.7 118.4 -33 225
    259 Bloomington, IN 39.1 83.1 39 298
    260 Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR 39.0 345.1 -49 211
    261 Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick, MD Metropolitan Division 38.8 572.5 -95 166
    262 Waterbury, CT NECTA 38.8 65.1 118 380
    263 Calvert-Charles-Prince George’s, MD 38.6 386.4 45 308
    264 Birmingham-Hoover, AL 38.0 511.9 36 300
    265 Lewiston-Auburn, ME NECTA 38.0 49.1 47 312
    266 Philadelphia City, PA 38.0 671.2 -42 224
    267 Saginaw-Saginaw Township North, MI 37.5 87.7 56 323
    268 Bangor, ME NECTA 37.4 66.5 -50 218
    269 Sandusky, OH 37.3 34.9 120 389
    270 Hanford-Corcoran, CA 37.1 36.5 -2 268
    271 Morristown, TN 37.1 46.6 98 369
    272 Warner Robins, GA 37.1 58.7 -52 220
    273 Sebastian-Vero Beach, FL 36.8 46.5 62 335
    274 Portland-South Portland-Biddeford, ME NECTA 36.8 193.5 8 282
    275 Worcester, MA-CT NECTA 36.7 248.9 -39 236
    276 Pocatello, ID 36.6 36.8 48 324
    277 Fayetteville, NC 36.1 132.5 -86 191
    278 Sheboygan, WI 35.6 58.7 89 367
    279 Toledo, OH 35.6 308.9 28 307
    280 Cedar Rapids, IA 35.5 140.4 -94 186
    281 Lancaster, PA 35.4 231.8 -58 223
    282 Pittsburgh, PA 35.4 1,154.7 -149 133
    283 Manhattan, KS 35.2 56.5 -219 64
    284 Valdosta, GA 35.0 54.1 -45 239
    285 Goldsboro, NC 34.7 43.6 60 345
    286 Bergen-Hudson-Passaic, NJ 34.7 891.3 -19 267
    287 Reading, PA 34.6 170.7 -165 122
    288 Chattanooga, TN-GA 34.6 238.9 -67 221
    289 Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI 34.3 828.8 8 297
    290 Nashua, NH-MA  NECTA Division 34.3 129.3 0 290
    291 Topeka, KS 34.1 110.7 -99 192
    292 Montgomery, AL 34.0 169.0 14 306
    293 Cape Girardeau-Jackson, MO-IL 34.0 44.7 -38 255
    294 Hot Springs, AR 33.9 37.3 -75 219
    295 Ocala, FL 33.5 93.1 -26 269
    296 Evansville, IN-KY 33.1 177.2 -36 260
    297 Providence-Fall River-Warwick, RI-MA NECTA 33.0 557.1 18 315
    298 Tallahassee, FL 33.0 170.4 34 332
    299 Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY 32.9 550.6 -85 214
    300 Tucson, AZ 32.7 366.4 -55 245
    301 Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC 32.6 217.4 -69 232
    302 Wichita, KS 32.6 290.7 59 361
    303 Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY 32.6 446.4 -138 165
    304 Niles-Benton Harbor, MI 32.5 60.0 67 371
    305 Greensboro-High Point, NC 32.4 348.7 37 342
    306 Gary, IN Metropolitan Division 32.4 273.8 -34 272
    307 Rochester, NY 32.0 515.7 -104 203
    308 Roanoke, VA 31.9 159.1 -91 217
    309 Jackson, MS 31.8 259.4 -101 208
    310 Cumberland, MD-WV 31.6 39.6 -103 207
    311 Springfield, MA-CT NECTA 31.6 293.3 57 368
    312 Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC 30.7 748.2 -143 169
    313 Bay City, MI 30.6 37.2 -194 119
    314 Bremerton-Silverdale, WA 30.6 84.3 40 354
    315 Yuma, AZ 30.4 52.5 -35 280
    316 Macon, GA 29.7 99.1 -180 136
    317 Baltimore City, MD 29.6 359.3 -168 149
    318 Santa Fe, NM 29.5 61.5 21 339
    319 Kingston, NY 29.4 60.1 63 382
    320 Leominster-Fitchburg-Gardner, MA NECTA 28.8 49.0 27 347
    321 St. Louis, MO-IL 28.5 1,315.5 7 328
    322 Farmington, NM 27.8 49.6 14 336
    323 Muncie, IN 27.8 51.9 -286 37
    324 Lima, OH 27.3 52.7 64 388
    325 Erie, PA 27.3 129.7 -52 273
    326 Rochester-Dover, NH-ME NECTA 27.3 56.4 -74 252
    327 Newark-Union, NJ-PA Metropolitan Division 27.2 989.0 36 363
    328 Kansas City, MO 27.1 555.2 -14 314
    329 Rome, GA 26.9 39.3 -3 326
    330 Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, TN-VA 26.8 119.9 -49 281
    331 Springfield, IL 26.8 110.8 -91 240
    332 York-Hanover, PA 26.6 177.0 -116 216
    333 Anderson, IN 26.3 40.4 -204 129
    334 Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH 26.3 1,023.8 -13 321
    335 Putnam-Rockland-Westchester, NY 25.8 563.2 -47 288
    336 Wausau, WI 25.7 68.2 38 374
    337 Altoona, PA 25.5 60.7 -91 246
    338 Salisbury, MD 25.4 52.7 -61 277
    339 Burlington, NC 25.3 59.1 11 350
    340 Memphis, TN-MS-AR 25.1 608.8 -78 262
    341 Jackson, MI 24.3 54.5 31 372
    342 Pittsfield, MA NECTA 23.8 35.8 -31 311
    343 Syracuse, NY 23.7 315.7 -38 305
    344 Champaign-Urbana, IL 23.7 107.9 14 358
    345 Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA 23.5 225.1 12 357
    346 Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC 23.3 146.1 41 387
    347 Alexandria, LA 22.8 62.8 -1 346
    348 Flint, MI 22.5 136.7 35 383
    349 Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ 22.5 45.3 26 375
    350 South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI 22.5 135.2 28 378
    351 Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL 22.4 181.3 -124 227
    352 Decatur, AL 22.3 54.3 27 379
    353 Shreveport-Bossier City, LA 22.1 171.5 -31 322
    354 Fort Smith, AR-OK 21.9 116.6 -11 343
    355 Peoria, IL 21.8 177.6 -167 188
    356 Racine, WI 21.8 75.2 9 365
    357 Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH 21.6 114.8 -32 325
    358 Terre Haute, IN 21.3 70.9 -39 319
    359 Albany, GA 21.0 61.6 -28 331
    360 Rockford, IL 20.9 146.9 -61 299
    361 Jefferson City, MO 20.8 76.5 -17 344
    362 Glens Falls, NY 20.0 52.2 -172 190
    363 Johnson City, TN 19.9 78.3 -80 283
    364 Mobile, AL 19.8 172.7 -23 341
    365 Scranton–Wilkes-Barre, PA 19.4 253.2 -116 249
    366 Albuquerque, NM 18.6 368.1 -17 349
    367 Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI Metropolitan Division 18.5 717.1 -113 254
    368 Lynchburg, VA 18.4 102.3 -77 291
    369 Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL 17.9 194.7 -51 318
    370 Utica-Rome, NY 17.7 127.9 11 381
    371 Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX 17.7 156.9 -112 259
    372 Texarkana, TX-Texarkana, AR 17.7 55.2 -119 253
    373 Dothan, AL 17.4 56.9 -13 360
    374 Parkersburg-Marietta-Vienna, WV-OH 17.2 69.8 -1 373
    375 Danville, VA 17.1 39.9 -248 127
    376 Kalamazoo-Portage, MI 16.6 137.2 10 386
    377 Brunswick, GA 16.5 40.1 -85 292
    378 Dayton, OH 16.4 374.2 -22 356
    379 Camden, NJ Metropolitan Division 16.3 504.8 -113 266
    380 Steubenville-Weirton, OH-WV 15.4 44.1 15 395
    381 Johnstown, PA 15.1 58.5 -105 276
    382 Vineland-Millville-Bridgeton, NJ 14.3 57.7 -20 362
    383 Mansfield, OH 13.4 52.2 10 393
    384 Bloomington-Normal, IL 12.3 88.9 -179 205
    385 Elmira, NY 12.0 38.9 -19 366
    386 Wichita Falls, TX 10.3 57.7 -2 384
    387 Charleston, WV 9.3 144.3 -78 309
    388 Anniston-Oxford, AL 7.0 45.5 -29 359
    389 Norwich-New London, CT-RI NECTA 6.4 126.0 1 390
    390 Decatur, IL 5.6 51.3 4 394
    391 Dalton, GA 5.4 63.5 7 398
    392 Rocky Mount, NC 5.3 55.3 5 397
    393 Carson City, NV 4.8 27.3 -1 392
    394 Binghamton, NY 4.3 106.1 -3 391
    395 Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ 3.9 132.5 1 396
    396 Danville, IL 3.9 28.7 -45 351
    397 Michigan City-La Porte, IN 3.8 41.8 -27 370
    398 Pine Bluff, AR 3.1 35.4 -34 364

  • Large Cities Rankings – 2014 Best Cities for Job Growth

    Read about how we selected the 2014 Best Cities for Job Growth

    This year’s rankings use five measures of growth to rank all 398 metro areas for which full data sets were available from the past 10 years.  "Large" areas include those with a current nonfarm employment base of at least 450,000 jobs. "Midsize" areas range from 150,000 to 450,000 jobs. "Small" areas have as many as 150,000 jobs.  This year’s rankings reflect the current size of each MSAs employment.   Only one MSA—Modesto, CA—changed size categories moving from “Small” to “Midsized.” In the instances where the analysis refers to changes in ranking order within the size categories, this MSAs changes are reported as if they had been included in their current category in the prior year.

    2014  Rank Among Large Cities Area 2014 Weighted INDEX  2013 Nonfarm Emplmt (1000s)  Size Mvmnt 2013 Size Ranking
    1 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 94.2 982.2 6 7
    2 San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA Metropolitan Division 94.1 1,087.8 -1 1
    3 Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX 87.0 881.1 7 10
    4 Raleigh-Cary, NC 86.2 552.5 7 11
    5 Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX 84.7 2,825.8 0 5
    6 Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN 82.3 822.8 -4 2
    7 New York City, NY 81.2 4,018.3 11 18
    8 Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL 81.0 1,085.2 23 31
    9 Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX Metropolitan Division 79.7 2,199.4 -3 6
    10 Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO 79.7 1,305.4 -1 9
    11 Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metropolitan Division 79.6 931.3 -7 4
    12 San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX 79.0 913.1 0 12
    13 Salt Lake City, UT 78.7 670.4 -10 3
    14 Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC 77.3 888.0 -6 8
    15 Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA Metropolitan Division 76.3 1,522.7 -1 14
    16 Oklahoma City, OK 75.2 616.8 -1 15
    17 Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA 75.0 1,254.7 28 45
    18 Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL Metropolitan Division 74.6 1,081.8 19 37
    19 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA 71.4 1,049.3 22 41
    20 Columbus, OH 71.0 984.0 -7 13
    21 Jacksonville, FL 70.9 620.0 11 32
    22 Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ 69.7 1,849.2 17 39
    23 Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA NECTA Division 67.6 1,782.5 -6 17
    24 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA 67.3 2,435.7 -2 22
    25 West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach, FL Metropolitan Division 67.2 551.7 15 40
    26 New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA 66.1 550.8 -3 23
    27 Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, FL Metropolitan Division 65.6 762.9 15 42
    28 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL 63.7 1,192.3 0 28
    29 Indianapolis-Carmel, IN 63.6 938.9 -13 16
    30 Honolulu, HI 62.7 462.1 -6 24
    31 Oakland-Fremont-Hayward, CA Metropolitan Division 62.2 1,045.3 25 56
    32 San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA 62.0 1,325.0 -5 27
    33 Las Vegas-Paradise, NV 61.6 862.0 17 50
    34 Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA Metropolitan Division 58.7 1,473.5 4 38
    35 Northern Virginia, VA 58.7 1,372.9 -16 19
    36 Louisville-Jefferson County, KY-IN 57.2 629.4 -16 20
    37 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA Metropolitan Division 56.9 4,171.3 12 49
    38 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Division 56.6 2,516.1 -12 26
    39 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI 54.7 1,808.0 -18 21
    40 Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA 54.3 478.8 -6 34
    41 Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, MI Metropolitan Division 54.0 1,145.8 7 48
    42 Richmond, VA 53.9 637.6 -17 25
    43 Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville, CA 50.5 872.5 14 57
    44 Nassau-Suffolk, NY Metropolitan Division 49.9 1,281.6 -15 29
    45 Edison-New Brunswick, NJ Metropolitan Division 45.3 1,016.4 -12 33
    46 Cincinnati-Middletown, OH-KY-IN 44.8 1,027.0 12 58
    47 Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL Metropolitan Division 43.9 3,787.2 5 52
    48 Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT NECTA 40.0 553.1 -1 47
    49 Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick, MD Metropolitan Division 38.8 572.5 -14 35
    50 Birmingham-Hoover, AL 38.0 511.9 11 61
    51 Philadelphia City, PA 38.0 671.2 -5 46
    52 Pittsburgh, PA 35.4 1,154.7 -22 30
    53 Bergen-Hudson-Passaic, NJ 34.7 891.3 2 55
    54 Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI 34.3 828.8 6 60
    55 Providence-Fall River-Warwick, RI-MA NECTA 33.0 557.1 8 63
    56 Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY 32.9 550.6 -12 44
    57 Rochester, NY 32.0 515.7 -14 43
    58 Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC 30.7 748.2 -22 36
    59 St. Louis, MO-IL 28.5 1,315.5 6 65
    60 Newark-Union, NJ-PA Metropolitan Division 27.2 989.0 6 66
    61 Kansas City, MO 27.1 555.2 1 62
    62 Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH 26.3 1,023.8 2 64
    63 Putnam-Rockland-Westchester, NY 25.8 563.2 -4 59
    64 Memphis, TN-MS-AR 25.1 608.8 -11 53
    65 Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI Metropolitan Division 18.5 717.1 -14 51
    66 Camden, NJ Metropolitan Division 16.3 504.8 -12 54