Milken ranks Durham, Raleigh-Cary MSAs among best-performing American cities

We at BCR aren't quite sure we can accept regional praise from a non-profit run by one-time Wall Street insider trader Michael Milken (purportedly the model for Gordon Gecko in Wall Street) with a completely straight face -- even if Milken's later-life cancer research philanthropic support deserves praise.

Still, the probably-free-market-oriented Milken Institute just released their list of America's best-performing metro areas. And out of the 200 largest metros in the US, Durham ranked #6.

Texas dominated the list, with Austin, Killeen, poverty-stricken McAllen and Houston in the top five. Salt Lake City also made the top five list. Keeping up the Triangle love, Raleigh-Cary ranked #10 on the list.

The Milken Institute's criteria is heavy on job growth, GDP contribution and high-tech performance, making it no surprise the Triangle would do well on those grounds:

Leaders in this year’s index, which ranks U.S. metros based on their ability to create and sustain jobs, are all metros that succeeded in avoiding the worst of economic declines driven by falling housing markets and job losses in manufacturing and global trade.... 

The Best Performing Cities Index includes both long-term (five years) and short-term (one year) measurements of employment and salary growth. There are also four measurements of technology output growth, which are included because of technology's crucial role in creating good jobs and driving regional economies.

The Durham MSA ranked fourth nationally for the concentration of high-tech jobs in the region, and in the 10th-33rd position for one-year job growth, wage growth and high-tech sector output growth. Durham's rankings for five-year measures in these areas were lower, suggesting the region's ongoing strength even in a bad economy.

Read more over at the Milken Institute web site.

Comments

[Reyn]

Is there no redemption:) Actually, the institute and a vendor do the analysis.

[Nathaniel H. Goetz]

As a former research analyst at the Milken Institute, I helped with previous versions of this report and am proud of the product, methodology and leadership behind it. It is great to see the Triangle, in particular our great city, in the top ten this year!