A New Geography reports that San Francisco and San Jose metro areas are still tops in job growth for large metropolitan statistical areas.
Only outgrown by a trio of smaller cities, one in Colorado and two in Texas, SF and SJ metros are comfortably at the top of the Large City classification ahead of Texas’ two biggies, Dallas and Austin.
SF earned a 97.5 weighted index, SJ is not far behind with a 97.2. The large Texas cities come with a 91.4 and a 90.9 respectively. Small classification #1 Midland, Texas was the overall high watermark with a 100.0. Either way, the Bay Area has consistently pulled its weight for the last decade.
The index numbers used to reflect each cities growth are the product of New Geography’s methodology which uses a city’s current year, recent (2-year), mid-term (2009-2014), long-term (2003-2014) growth, and yearly average growth for the last 10 years. The full description of this can be found here.
Other notable California cities that have shown strong growth include:
Small Classification:
Napa – #8 – 90.7 Index
Merced – #11 – 87.9 Index
San Luis Obispo – #23 – 79.5 Index
Medium Classification:
Bakersfield – #6 – 82.6 Index
Fresno – #10 – 76.1 Index
Santa Rosa – #12 – 73.7 Index
Modesto – #16 – 71.4 Index
Santa Barbara – #17 – 71.1 Index
Stockton – #20 – 68.8 Index
Large Classification:
Riverside - #11 – 83.9 Index
Anaheim - #26 – 72.3 Index
San Diego - #28 – 71.1 Index
Oakland - #29 – 70.5 Index
For the full list of index rankings, see here.