Articles and Updates
America's Best Performing Cities: How Do Arizona Metros Compare?
November, 2008
By Valorie Hanni Rice
The Milken Institute released its annual Best-Performing Cities: Where America’s Jobs Are Created and Sustained report in September 2008 and the news was not very cheery for Arizona cities. Four out of the five Arizona metropolitan areas represented in the report dropped in their respective rankings. The results are divided into a large cities list and a small cities list. For large cities, Phoenix ranked 32nd in 2008 compared with 4th in 2007 and Tucson fell to 55th from 15th last year. Prescott, Yuma and Flagstaff were all included in the small cities table. Yuma was the one bright spot for the state as it moved from 32nd place to 13th. Prescott held its own this year only dropping two places to a ranking of 9th and Flagstaff made an even more precipitous drop than even Phoenix by moving from 21st place last year to 63rd this year.
The drop in rankings for Arizona metro areas may be disappointing, but it is not unexpected. The report looked at job growth over both a five-year span and twelve months (March 2007 to March 2008), wage and salary growth, technology output and high tech concentrations. The ratings rely most heavily on employment growth, for which Arizona has not fared well recently.
The top performing area went to Provo-Orem, UT. Raleigh-Cary, NC; Salt Lake City, UT; Austin-Round Rock, TX; and Huntsville, AL round out the top five areas for the 2008 rankings. Of the top 25 performers, three were from Utah and six were from Texas. The metros that moved up in rankings were mostly those that did not have the housing problems seen in Arizona, California, Nevada and Florida. Energy related industries and continued strength in technology sectors were reasons for other metro areas, particularly those in Texas, to do well in the recent rankings.
The full report can be found at: http://bestcities.milkeninstitute.org/.
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