Daniel Fisher @ The Forbes:
Earlier this month, Texas Gov. Rick Perry made a quick tour of California to remind business owners that life’s a whole lot easier in the Lone Star State. Perry’s California critics called him “Governor Oops” for his miscues during the presidential debates, and Gov. Jerry Brown dismissed the Texan’s recruiting drive as “not a burp,” and barely even a certain bodily release of gas.
Laugh away, Californians. But Perry is playing the stronger hand here. Texas trounced the rest of the country our latest survey of the Best Cities for Good Jobs, with five metropolitan areas in the Top Ten, including the four best cities to find jobs in the next few years.
This year’s winner is Dallas, which shrugged off the Nov. 2011 bankruptcy of American Airlines parent AMR Corp. to rack up 2.1% job growth last year and is projected to continue adding jobs at a 2.8% rate through 2019 – more than 300,000 on top of the 2.1 million already in Dallas and its Plano and Irving suburbs.
“The explanation is we have an incredibly diversified economy,” said Bernard Weinstein, who’s been tracking the north Texas economy since 1975 and is associate director of Southern Methodist University‘s McGuire Energy Institute. “As the national economy improves, we’re getting better.”
To construct this list, Forbes gathered data from Moody’s Analytics on the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. We then ranked the cities according to recent and expected job growth, current unemployment rate, and current and expected per-capita income. We threw out cities with high unemployment rates or that are clearly rebounding from severe economic distress, such as Stockton, Calif., which came in first on 2012 job growth at 3.7% but still sports a 14% unemployment rate. We also gave increased weight to areas with high and growing per-capita incomes, to avoid steering people to cities that are adding lots of low-wage jobs. A description of the methodology is here.
The Moody’s data show that Texans didn’t suffer as much in the financial crisis, and they’re doing much better now. The Texas unemployment rate rose from below 5% in 2007 all the way to a little above 8% in 2010, but now it’s falling back down again to a current 6.2%. The U.S. unemployment rate peaked at 10% and is still stuck at about 8%, with states like California, Illinois and New York well above that.
“You’ve got these two economic powerhouses, Texas and California, and you have to ask why we are outperforming,” Weinstein said. “It’s a real testament to the diversity and strength of our economy, that through good times and bad we are outperforming the nation.”
Does Texas really want all those nutty California Libs moving to Texas?
@Old Guy:
Old Guy, I have been reading statements like yours for 10 years. But it is not the progressives/libs that are movinng to Texas from California. Most of the people I have met over the last 10 years that have moved to Texas from California do so to get away from the high tax, high level of state government interference in trying to run a business or earn a living. Those libs who still support the disasterous California government seem to stay there.
@retire05: Hopefully it’s ditto for those moving to Arizona as well. I wouldn’t want to see my favorite vacation state to go lefty!
A.V. The Goldwater Repubs. are fading out. The Latino vote is growing . Unless we get meaningful immigration reform and Sheriff Joe takes it down a notch I believe Arizona will go Blue by 2016.
Texas will stay as Red hot as it’s summers and barbeque.
Increasing employment in government and education?
I’m pretty sure no federal dollars are involved in healthcare.
That caption might also have wandered slightly off message: It sort of sounds like things are booming in an environment notable for high levels of unionized labor and federal spending.
RETIRE05
TELL TEXAS TO NOT ALLOW THE CALIFORNIAN DEMOCRATES TO START DICTATING HIS BUSYNESS,
IF THEY ARE DEMOCRATS THEY WILL BECAUSE THAT’S WHO THEY ARE, AND TRY TO BUY RICK PERRY,
IF IT HAPPEN RICK PERRY WILL LOSE CONTROL AND HIS SOUL WITH IT. AND THE TEXANS WILL BE UNHAPPY, THEY ARE RICK’S PRIORITY ANY TIME, AND NOT FOR SALE,
BYE
THE GOVERNOR OF ARIZONA, IS VERY ANGRY AT THE WHITE HOUSE
WHO GAVE THE ORDER TO TURN LOOSE THE ILLEGAL FOUND TO BE CRIMINALS,
SHE SAID THERE ARE NO PRESIDENT TO DO HIS JOB,
SHE FIND IT THE WORSE THING IS DONE RIGHT UNDER HER STATE,
IT IS OUTRAGEOUS TO THE PRESIDENT SIDING WITH ILLEGAL CRIMINALS AND LET DOWN THE AMERICANS LIVING IN THOSE BORDER STATES IN GREAT DANGER,
OBAMA IS A SPITEFULL PERSON HE CLAIM IT’S THE SEQUESTER,
THE SEQUESTER HAS NOT YET BEGUN AND THE BORDER PATROLS GOT THE ORDER TO TURN THEM LOOSE, YES WHAT KIND OF PRESIDENT IS HE.
IS IN THERE CAUSE FOR IMPEACHMENT.
WHERE’S THE FBI WHEN SHE DESPERATLY NEED THEM,
SHE NEED TO HAVE HER STATE PROTECTED,
CAN SHE DEPEND ON SOMEONE,
SHE SHOULD USE HER STATE POWER AND DELIVER SOME ORDERS TO GET THAT COUNTERCLOCK, AND SEND BACK THE BOOMERANG RIGHT BACK AT OBAMA WITH THE ILLEGALS CRIMINALS
@Greg:
While there are union shops in Texas (such at the AT & T workers), because Texas is a right-to-work state, those are not “closed” shops. Any employee in Texas has the right to decide, for themselves, if they will or will not join a union. Often a new hire will join a union thinking that is what they are supposed to do, only to drop out of the union as time goes on. The CWA, once a mighty, mighty union, is currently seeing a decrease in its numbers due to the right-to-work states.
Don’t worry about TX and AZ getting lefties. They will not leave this highly taxed leftist state. It’s the conservatives ( right thinking) that want out. I will be looking in AZ. I retire in a little over 1.5 years @ 59.5.
matt95688
hi,
I was led to believe that TEXAS IS MORE CONSERVATIVE,
AND RICK PERRY IS CONSERVATIVE WITH HIS FAMILY,
BUT ONE TOWN ON THE NORTH ,IS DEMOCRAT, IS IT AUSTIN?