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Axios Austin
Austin tops Milken Institute high-performing city rankings
By Asher PriceJennifer A. Kingson,
2024-02-07
Austin tops the Milken Institute's latest annual list of the Best Performing Cities, released first to Axios.
Why it matters: These metropolitan areas offer high wages , plentiful jobs , and thriving tech sectors — making them economic models for the rest of the nation.
Details: The Milken Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit, assessed 403 U.S. metropolitan areas using 13 economic metrics, based on data from January 2022-August 2023.
Of note: This year's rankings took two new factors into consideration: income equality and "resilience," defined as a city's ability to withstand severe weather and economic turmoil.
Plus: We don't have a sterling record when it comes to enduring severe weather, with winter storms the past few years knocking out power and leading to deaths .
What they're saying: "These rankings really look at growth," Maggie Switek, an author of the Milken report, tells Axios. "What we mean by top-performing is that these are the cities that are growing the fastest."
Where it stands: The Austin/Round Rock area ranked first among large metropolitan areas because of its "rapid growth in jobs, wages, and high tech," bolstered by the presence of the University of Texas.
It moved up from its #2 position last year, displacing Provo/Orem, Utah (which saw declines in job and wage growth due to recent tech layoffs).
Zoom out: The U.S. labor market added more than 6 million jobs in 2022, 90.7% of which were in metropolitan areas.
But the geographic distribution of this growth has changed, shifting from mega-cities such as New York and Los Angeles to Texas and the Sun Belt.
What's next: Expect climate change, the migration of high-tech jobs and the evolution of remote work patterns to continue shaping the fortunes of cities across America.
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