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Cities with the Best Jobs in 2010 Back to News RoomBy Siri Anderson Best Cities to Find JobsThere was a whole lot of shaking going on in 2009 – job losses, volatile markets, recovery packages, a new president. But in surprising contrast to that, the rankings for top cities this year remained fairly steady. “None of [the top 10] had a meteoric rise over the last year. Most of them went up and the couple that dropped did not drop dramatically,” commented Kevin Klowden, managing economist at the Milken Institute, and co-author of Best-Performing Cities 2009 report.“The fact remains essentially that there are certain locations that have advantages in terms of lower costs, improved access to talent, certain key industry resources and other factors that help to drive things.” The Milken Institute's report highlights the fact that top cities didn't experience the same inflation in housing prices as the rest of the country, and so they avoided the devastating correction experienced elsewhere. Another factor in success was a prominence of the oil and gas industry. These two came together favorably for Texas, whose cities took five of the top 10 rankings. All top performers, however, showed only mild increases in employment, if any at all. High marks in 2009 reflect how well a city's economic infrastructure weathered the storm, so it is important to look at a city's performance relative to the nation and other metro areas – 2009 is not the year to focus on the numbers alone. Cities with the Best Jobs in 2010The Milken Institute rankings are based on a variety of factors, two of which include job and salary growth trends. Put together, these factors demonstrated a well-balanced local economy that should remain strong into the next year and likely beyond that for the following top 10 cities for jobs. We also list an example job position and its median annual salary in that town, according to online salary database PayScale.com. 1. Austin-Round Rock, Texas (pop. 1,653,000) Due to its well-prepared grads of top research institutions and its entrepreneurial spirit as evidenced by the high rate of self-employed workers, Austin has been cooking up a hot economy in recent years. It has been recruiting a lot of technology companies, due to low business costs in the area. Plus, Austin is positioning itself well in the clean tech industry, giving it an excellent outlook for the foreseeable future and making it the top city for jobs. Environmental engineer median salary - $73,500 2. Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, Texas (pop. 379,000) A major army base, a strong concentration of healthcare services, and robust higher education joined forces to earn this area the top spot for job growth in 2008, and it is continuing on that track in 2009. Texas A&M is in the process of building a new major satellite facility, drawing work that is already strong from Central Texas College's strong enrollment. Consolidation of military bases to Fort Hood has increased the population of stably employed workers as well. Additionally, the region had a very low rate of sub-prime mortgages, so the bursting housing bubble had a minimal effect on this region's economy. Registered nurse median salary - $54,000 3 Salt Lake City, Utah (pop. 1,116,000) Holding steady in third position is Salt Lake City, with its strong technology industry and high number of quality jobs. The finance industry is also strong here, but appears to have played the lending game a little smarter than most of the country. The region demonstrated much less speculative activity and was minimally affected by the sub-prime mortgage fallout. State budget problems have been occurring, as in many capitals across the country. However, cutbacks appear to be modest, and Utah as a whole appears to be poised for growth and strong recovery in the next year.Financial analyst median salary - $61,300 4. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas (pop. 1,116,000) McAllen has been coming on strong in the list of top cities over the past few years, driven by its top ranking for employment growth and high-tech GDP growth between the years of 2003-2008 The area has been luring companies with is low business costs, which has fueled employment growth numbers and helped to increase population. As a result of this and population growth of gainfully employed folk, the service-based industry, which has taken such a hit elsewhere, continues to prosper. Software developer median salary - $63,100 5. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas (pop. 5,728,000) 6 Durham, North Carolina (pop. 490,000) 7. Olympia, Washington (pop. 245,000) 8. Huntsville, Alabama (pop 396,000) 9. Lafayette, Louisiana (pop. 396,000) 10. Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina (pop. 1,089,000) |