Where's Waldo? (if Waldo's looking for a job)
Published: Mar 11, 2009
It's probably no surprise that four cities at the bottom of the list are in Florida, a state which has seen two of its top industries (construction and tourism) all but die of late. Fort Myers, Port St. Lucie, Miami/Fort Lauderdale and Naples earned, respectively, a -16%, -14%, -14% and -11%. Now for the cheerier stuff, in which the top slots are filled by some unlikely candidates. Two cities in Washington, Yakima (+21%) and Kennewick (+19%), are both reaping benefits from a large apple crop and other agrarian efforts; once home to the nation's highest percentage of Ph.D.'s per person (who knew?), the Kennewick area also hosts the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory research facility. Anchorage, Alaska (+18%), where the retail and healthcare segments are booming, is another desirable location for job seekers. So are Amarillo, Texas (+15%) -- the site of sizable medical and food processing firms, and the only nuclear refurbishment plant on the planet -- and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, maybe the only place in the country where finance firms (Wells Fargo, Citigroup, HSBC) aren't being raked over the coals.
Perhaps a move is in order…but do keep in mind that these results carry an expiration date of June 2009.
--Posted by Todd Obolsky, Vault News & Commentary