2010 Best Performing Cities where Jobs are Created & Sustained

Best-Performing Cities 2010: Where Jobs Are Created and Sustained

Texas metros dominated the 2010 rankings, eclipsing even last year’s stellar performance. Lone Star State metros occupied 11 of the top 25 positions among the 200 largest metros in the country and five of the top 10. For the second year running, the same two Texas cities claimed the top two spots, except Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood edged past Austin–Round Rock to take first among the 200 largest metros. Another way to highlight Texas’ dominance is that just two of the state’s 13 metros didn’t make the top 25, with the lowest-ranking metro coming in at 57th overall.

The 2010 top performers (with 2009 rankings) among the 200 largest metros are:

Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, TX (2)
Austin-Round Rock, TX (1)
Huntsville, AL (8)
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX (4)
Kennewick-Richland-Pasco, WA (n.a.)
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV (25)
Raleigh-Cary, NC (10)
Anchorage, AK (40)
El Paso, TX (14)
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX (5)

Excerpt from report regarding Austin: “Although employment fell in 2009, Austin’s unemployment rate peaked at 7.3 percent, roughly 3 percentage points less than the national figure. Austin’s relatively low cost of doing business for a leading knowledge-based economy hub, combined with a favorable business climate and access to an educated workforce, makes it a very attractive location to start or expand a business. Austin’s net population increased by 32,000 in 2009, according to the Census Bureau, compared with a peak of 48,000 in 2006. Austin hopes to encourage more high-tech services, recognizing that hardware and chip makers will create fewer jobs in the future. That said, Samsung intends to add a production line in Austin that will employ 500 workers to make logic chips, demonstrating that Austin remains a key center of U.S. chip manufacturing and will attract new incremental capacity in the future. On the high-tech service side, one recent success is Apple’s acquisition of Intrinsity Inc., which designed key parts of a chip for Apple’s iPad. Intrinsity had around 100 employees at the time of the acquisition, but it is likely that Apple will make additional investments and add more employees. Apple already has around 2,500 employees in central Texas. Many other high-tech service firms such as Google and Facebook are adding employees in Austin.”

Thanks to Lisa Altimirano at Gracy Title, Austin for providing this article.

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