By Joel Kotkin and Michael Shires
Throughout the brutal recession, one metropolitan area floated serenely above the carnage: Washington, D.C. Buoyed by government spending, the local economy expanded 17% from 2007 to 2012. But for the first time in four years, the capital region has fallen out of the top 15 big cities in our annual survey of the best places for jobs, dropping to 16th place from fifth last year.
It’s a symptom of a significant and welcome shift in the weak U.S. economic recovery: employment growth has moved away from the public sector to private businesses. In 2011, for the first time since before the recession, growth in private-sector employment outstripped the public sector. More than half (231) of the 398 metro areas we surveyed for our annual study of employment trends registered declines in government jobs, with public-sector employment dropping 0.9 percent overall. Meanwhile, private-sector employment expanded 1.4 percent.
Instead of government, the big drivers of growth now appear to be three basic sectors: energy, technology and, most welcome all, manufacturing. Energy-rich Texas cities dominate our list — the state has added some 200,000 generally high-paying oil and gas jobs over the past decade — but Texas is also leading in industrial job growth, technology and services. In first place in our ranking of the 65 largest metropolitan areas is Austin, which has logged strong growth in manufacturing, technology-related employment and business services. Houston places second, Fort Worth fourth, and Dallas-Plano-Irving sixth. Another energy capital, Oklahoma City, ranks 10th, while resurgent New Orleans-Metairie places 13th among the largest metro areas.
To determine the best cities for jobs, we ranked all 398 current metropolitan statistical areas based on employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics covering November 2000 through January 2012. Rankings are based on recent growth trends, mid-term growth, long-term growth and the region’s momentum. (Click here for a detailed description of our methodology.) We also broke down rankings by size — small, medium and large — since regional economies differ markedly due to their scale.
The strong growth of the energy sector, and Texas, is even more evident in our overall ranking, which includes many small and medium-sized metropolitan areas. The top 10 fastest growers overall include such energy-centric places as No. 1 Odessa, Texas; second-place Midland, Texas; Lafayette, La. (fourth place); Corpus Christi, Texas (sixth), San Angelo, Texas (seventh); and Casper, Wyo. (10th). (See also: Around The World, Small Cities Are Becoming Main Engine Of Economic Growth)
The shift from public to private can be seen in the falling rankings of many of the most government-dependent economies. Outside of Washington, D.C. (where federal employment actually has continued to grow), Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick, Md., took an even more dramatic tumble in our big city table, dropping 34 places to No. 46.There were sizable relative declines in the rankings of many state capitals such as Springfield, Ill. and Madison, Wisc. College towns, which had previously done well in the face of the recession, have also moved sharply lower in our rankings, due to a combination of state budget cuts and better performance elsewhere. College Station, Texas, plummeted from fourth last year on our overall list to 167th; Fairbanks, Alaska, slid from 15th place to 165th, Corvallis, Ore., tumbled from 40th place to 203rd place; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, dropped from 81st to 246th.
Budget constraints have also hurt military towns, which previously had been largely immune to the recession. Last year’s overall No. 1, Killeen-Ft. Hood, Texas, slid to 43rd place; Jacksonville, N.C., home to Camp Lejeune, fell to 102nd from 19th last year; and Lawton, Okla., home to Fort Sill, slipped to 274th from No. 20 last year.
Comments
I disagree with some of these choices.
I lived in both Houston and Dallas for years.
In Houston, unless you are in oil/gas OR in healthcare, good luck finding a job outside these industries.
In Dallas, unless you’re in finance OR in healthcare, good luck finding a job, unless being a waiter or working in retail is something you look forward to.
I had to move OUT of Texas to NYC to finally be in the industry I belong in.
Just because cities like NYC and LA seem like expensive and over-crowded places to be, they are, in my opinion, still the standard for finding a job or starting a business.
Technically, the tech jobs aren’t in Austin. They are in communities way outside the city limits in the next county over – an hour away from Austin. I moved from CA to work for one of those tech start-ups specifically to get away from the big city and found myself in the urban-sprawl commute from hell. I spent most of my time in my car because work was in one community, the nearest, NICE neighborhood with decent houses instead of apartments was a 30 minute commute away, and all the entertainment was in town at least an hour away on a good day. You don’t get that when they put you up in the hotel suites next door for your interview. Just be warned.
A great place to work really depends heavily on what one’s background is.
ie: If you’re an aspiring fashion designer, being in Texas is a lousy place to be.
In a nutshell, ANY city can be a great place to work, as long as that environment supports the industry.
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