The Milken Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan think tank, has released its annual economic report Best-Performing Cities 2012, which measures the economic strength of the country.
Technology centers dominated, making 12 of the top 25 cities on the list. Energy-rich Texan metros represented three of the top 10 cities and seven of the top 25. The top industries were computer and communication device production, energy and Internet-related services.
While the United States economy grew at a modest 2 percent in 2012, there were some positive signs, according to the Milken report. “The good news,” it said, “is that households are buying cars again, and housing appears to have finally found a bottom.” It blamed the fiscal cliff for worsening the already “listless pace” of business investment.
Technology-oriented areas appear the strongest in the country. The Milken Institute stated that its “top story” for 2012 was the return of technology clusters to its list. “The resurgence of business investment in equipment, especially information technology and software, has been the unheralded story of this recovery.”
Logan, Utah, was the best performing small city for 2012 with its impressive technology sector.
The Upper Midwest region saw big gains in the 2012 rankings, with nine cities in the top 20. Manufacturing of cars and heavy goods, such as machine tools and mining equipment, account for much of the growth in this region. Some of the big gainers include Gary, Ind.; Rockford, Ill.; and Holland-Grand Haven, Mich.
The best performing city on the economic report was San Jose, a center of “Internet search, communications networking, semiconductor and computer design, medical technology, telecom services and data processing.” San Jose has benefited from a multiplier effect associated with growth in technology jobs. The Milken Institute says that every new tech job causes two professional jobs and three nonprofessional jobs to be created. San Jose has had some of the highest wage growth in the country since 2010.
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