Raleigh's a 'Best City for Jobs' in 2016

Raleigh recently came in ninth on Forbes ‘Best Cities for Jobs in 2016’ list. The study noted that the health of the American economy looks very different depending on where you live and right now growth belongs to the tech centers, like Raleigh, and the Sun Belt. According to their research the tech boom is still creating jobs at a rapid pace in traditional tech hubs, like the Bay Area and Silicon Valley, but ‘secondary’ tech centers, like our region are posting strong growth as well. The high cost of living has spread the tech boom to areas like Raleigh and Austin where employers have moved for affordability.

A recent study by California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office found that the area’s top tech executives see high housing prices as the biggest barrier to future growth.

If this is a headache for these tech moguls, it’s manna from heaven for upstart metro areas like Austin-Round, Texas (sixth place on our list of Best Cities For Jobs); Raleigh, N.C. (ninth); Denver-Aurora-Lakewood (seventh) and Portland, Ore. (10th).

These rankings were determined using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from November 2014 to January 2016. They used five measures of growth to rank MSA’s over the past 10 years, these measures included:

• Recent growth trends
• Mid-term growth
• Long-term momentum
• Current year growth
• The average of each year’s growth rate