Let’s shift gears a bit in today’s Daily Data Discussion post and take a look at the Milken Institute’s Best City Rankings.  We’ve posted in months past about the Milken Institute’s Best City rankings – typically they had been published in odd numbered years, though this year the Milken Institute team elected to change to an annual schedule given the rapid changes in the economy.  We think that was a great idea, as the economic winds today have changed the course of job growth in many cities around the nation. 

As always, we’re astounded at the variability that exists today from market to market, and looking at job growth and sustainability is no different. 

The Milken Institute team publishes their methodology on their very informative website as to how they calculate the Best Cities rankings – here’s a link to the appropriate page. 

We like the Best City rankings in particular as it is another detailed measure of a community’s investment in job growth and development, as well as reflecting somewhat the efforts at sustaining a vibrant economic milieu within a community.  Milken performs first rate analysis in our book in this regard, and we truly value their efforts and opinion. 

Here are the markets in our database as of today with the highest 2008 Milken Institute Best Cities ranking

1)  Provo-Orem, UT  1
2)  Raleigh-Cary, NC  2
3)  Salt Lake City, UT  3
4)  Austin-Round Rock, TX 4
5)  Huntsville, AL  5

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at markets around the country with the lowest 2008 Milken Best City rankings for large cities. 

Technorati Tags: