San Antonio Ranks 3rd for Best Big Cities For Jobs
April 14, 2009
The study is based on job growth in 333 regions–called Metropolitan Statistical Areas by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which provided the data–across the U.S. Our analysis looked not only at job growth in the last year but also at how employment figures have changed since 1996. This is because we are wary of overemphasizing recent data and strive to give a more complete picture of the potential a region has for job-seekers.
The top of the complete ranking–which, for ease, we have broken down into the two smaller lists, of the best big and small cities for jobs–is dominated by one state: Texas. The Lone Star State may have lost a powerful advocate in Washington, but it’s home to a remarkable eight of the top 20 cities on our list–including No. 1-ranked Odessa, a small city in the state’s northwestern region. Further, the top five large metropolitan areas for job growth–Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Ft. Worth and Dallas–are all in Texas’ “urban triangle.”
The reasons for the state’s relative success are varied. A healthy energy industry is certainly one cause. Many Texas high-fliers, including Odessa, Longview, Dallas and Houston, are home to energy companies that employ hordes of people–and usually at fairly high salaries for both blue- and white-collar workers. In some places, these spurts represent a huge reversal from the late 1990s. Take Odessa’s remarkable 5.5% job growth in 2008, which followed a period of growth well under 1% from 1998 to 2002.
No. 10: Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, Ore.-Wash.
No. 9: Oklahoma City, Okla.
No. 8: Raleigh-Cary, N.C.
No. 7: Salt Lake City, Utah
No. 6: Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Wash.
No. 5: Dallas-Plano-Irving, Texas
No. 4: Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas
No. 3: San Antonio, Texas
The education and health care services sector is a large contributor to the employment success stories of the nation’s largest cities, in particular, the fast-growing cities west of the Mississippi. Cumulative growth between 2000 and 2008 for education and health care in San Antonio was 34.2%; so far, no slowdown is reflected in that data. Still, overall jobs increased only 0.5% in 2008, down from cumulative growth of 10.8% between 2004 and 2007.
No. 2: Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas
No. 1: Austin-Round Rock, Texas
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