The Best Big Cities For Jobs 2014

Methodology

We ranked all 398 current metropolitan statistical areas based on employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics from November 2002 through January 2014. Rankings are based on recent growth trends, mid-term growth, long-term growth and the region’s momentum. We also broke down rankings by size since regional economies differ markedly due to their scale. For our big cities list, we ranked the 66 MSAs that each have more than 450,000 jobs.

  
No. 1: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA


2013 Number Of Jobs: 982,000
Job Growth, 2013: 4.3%
Job Growth, 2008-13: 8.1%

No. 2: San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA Metropolitan Division


2013 Number Of Jobs: 1.1 Million
Job Growth, 2013: 3.6%
Job Growth, 2008-13: 8.5%


Photo: Attendees of the 2013 Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco wear Google Glass while posing for a group photo.

  
No. 3: Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX


2013 Number Of Jobs: 881,000
Job Growth, 2013: 4.1%
Job Growth, 2008-13: 13.7%

 No. 5: Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX


2013 Number Of Jobs: 2.83 million
Job Growth, 2013: 3.0%
Job Growth, 2008-13: 8.4%

No. 6: Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN


2013 Number Of Jobs: 823,000
Job Growth, 2013: 3.0%
Job Growth, 2008-13: 9.7%

No. 7: New York City, NY


2013 Number Of Jobs: 4.02 million
Job Growth, 2013: 2.2%
Job Growth, 2008-13: 6.2%

No. 8: Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL


2013 Number Of Jobs: 1.1 million
Job Growth, 2013: 3.3%
Job Growth, 2008-13: 4.7%

No. 9: Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX Metropolitan Division


2013 Number Of Jobs: 2.2 million
Job Growth, 2013: 2.8%
Job Growth, 2008-13: 6.2%

No. 10: Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO


2013 Number Of Jobs: 1.31 million
Job Growth, 2013: 3.0%
Job Growth, 2008-13: 5.8%

No. 11: Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metropolitan Division


2013 Number Of Jobs: 931,000
Job Growth, 2013: 2.5%
Job Growth, 2008-13: 6.9%

No. 12: San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX





2013 Number Of Jobs: 913,000
Job Growth, 2013: 2.2%
Job Growth, 2008-13: 7.6%

No. 13: Salt Lake City, UT


2013 Number Of Jobs: 670,000
Job Growth, 2013: 1.9%
Job Growth, 2008-13: 5.9%

No. 14: Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC


2013 Number Of Jobs: 888,000
Job Growth, 2013: 2.4%
Job Growth, 2008-13: 4.9%

No. 15: Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA Metropolitan Division


2013 Number Of Jobs: 1.52 million
Job Growth, 2013: 2.7%
Job Growth, 2008-13: 3.6%