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- America’s big cities are one of the main engines of the country’s economy.
- We ranked the 30 biggest metro areas on five measures of economic health.
- The cities at the top of the list have thriving technology sectors. San Francisco took the top spot.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
America’s big cities have an outsized role in the country’s economic engine, and these cities in particular are thriving.
Business Insider looked at five measures of labor market and overall economic health for the 30 metropolitan areas with the largest populations: the unemployment rate, job-growth rate, per capita GDP, GDP growth, and average weekly wages. We combined those measures together to get an overall sense of economic health in the metro areas.
Read more about our methods and data sources here.
The top three cities on our ranking — Seattle, Austin, and San Francisco — all have thriving technology sectors, along with strong economies overall.
Here are the 15 big metro area economies with the strongest economies, ranked from worst to best:
15. Atlanta, Georgia: The unemployment rate of 3.3% was just above the average rate among the 30 biggest metro areas of 3.2%, and the GDP growth rate of 2.9% was slightly higher than the average rate of 2.7%.
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14. Houston, Texas: The job growth rate of 2.6% and average weekly wage of $1,318 were both the seventh highest among the 30 biggest metro areas, while the GDP growth rate of 0% was the lowest.
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13. Charlotte, North Carolina: The unemployment rate of 3.7% was tied for fourth worst among the big cities, while the GDP growth rate of 3.5% was the seventh best.
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See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- The 15 biggest US cities with the worst economies, ranked
- 11 ways to help your kids become wealthier, according to an author who spent years studying millionaires
- From Barack Obama to Kristen Wiig, this is what guests on Jerry Seinfeld’s ‘Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee’ have to say about failure, career choices — and bees
Source: Business Insider – akiersz@businessinsider.com (Andy Kiersz)