According to NewGeography’s 2010 BestCities rankings, Missouri is home to many of the top cities for job growth in the country.
St. Joseph ranked 5th overall and among small cities. Columbia ranked 32nd overall and 23rd among small cities. Cape Girardeau ranked 57th overall and 40th among small cities. Jefferson City ranked 83rd overall and 61st among small cities.
Although not included in the top 100 overall, Joplin ranked 78th among small cities, and Springfield ranked 24th among medium sized cities.
Kansas City ranked 21st best large city for job growth out of 66 cities. St. Louis ranked 27th.
“Large” areas include those with a current nonfarm employment base of at least 450,000 jobs. “Midsize” areas range from 150,000 to 450,000 jobs. “Small” areas have as many as 150,000 jobs.
The index is calculated from a normalized, weighted summary of: 1) recent growth trend: the current and prior year’s employment growth rates, with the current year emphasized (two points); 2) mid-term growth: the average annual 2004-2009 growth rate (two points); 3) long-term trend and momentum: the sum of the 2004-2009 and 1999-2003 employment growth rates multiplied by the ratio of the 1999-2003 growth rate over the 2004-2009 growth rate (two points); and 4) current year growth (one point).