The Best Cities for Jobs

With unemployment hoovering around 4.5 percent, unemployment is relatively inconsequential in general. However, some cities are better than others. Recently Forbes Magazine listed the top 100 cities for jobs and I noticed they have a few things in common.

* They are in low tax states, such as Texas, Florida, Arizona, and Virginia.

* They are in the South and West. This is why these states are booming in population growth as well. All of the top ten cities are in the South and West (Hawaii being the far West). Some would call DC a northern city and although it has characteristics of such, the demographic includes Southern cities in Virginia. Furthermore DC is a boom city for jobs because of government, which can only happen in the nation's capital. Everywhere else, government is a job destroyer. The next ten cities are also all in the West and South except for number 11 which is made up of cities in Maryland. They, too, are near DC and make money off of big government. The South and West remain the primary job drivers through out the list. Florida is particularly strong, including Orlando, Florida (Home of Disney World, above).

* They are all mostly in states that are predominantly governed by Republicans in the State Houses. These Republicans largely have created jobs through their tax, regulatory, and licensure laws that are friendly to business. Some of these Republicans got beat in the last election cycle, I suspect that people that came from poor performing states inadvertently booted them out. I discuss phenomenon in a previous blog entry.

* These cities are growing rapidly. This could change if the policies in the states they are in change (as the governments have) and become anti-jobs.

I hope people take more than a casual look at the growth of jobs in this country and recognize what the cities (and states) that foster growth have in common. Furthermore, I hope governments practice the policies of low taxes, sensible regulations, and reasonable licensure laws. All of these are factors that contribute to positive job growth.