Des Moines Ranked 25th Best Performing City
The Des Moines area was recognized once again, this time being ranked 25th on the Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities for 2008. This was a huge jump for us, as of last year we were ranked 58th and we were the only midwestern city to be in the top 25.
The Milken Institute, for more than 15 years, has used capital-market principles and financial innovations to address social and economic challenges, from energy independence to poverty, here in the United States and around the world. Their primary objective is to help business, foundation, academic and public-policy leaders identify and implement new ideas for creating broad-based prosperity.
Milken Institute said that the Des Moines metro economy has grown slightly above the U.S. average in terms of employment and wages. The Des Moines metro area has produced growth in professional services 6.3 percentage points higher than the national average with financial services as the primary engine of its job creation. Key players in the financial service arena were Wells Fargo and Principal.
| Rank | Metropolitan Area |
| 1 | Provo-Orem, Utah |
| 2 | Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina |
| 3 | Salt Lake City, Utah |
| 4 | Austin-Round Rock, Texas |
| 5 | Huntsville, Alabama |
| 6 | Wilmington, North Carolina |
| 7 | McAllen-Edinburg-Misson, Texas |
| 8 | Tacoma, Washington |
| 9 | Olympia, Washington |
| 10 | Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville, SC |
| 11 | Orlando-Kissimmee, Florida |
| 12 | Bakersfield, California |
| 13 | Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, Texas |
| 14 | Lafayette, Louisana |
| 15 | San Antonio, Texas |
| 16 | Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas |
| 17 | Seattle-Bellevue-Everette, Washington |
| 18 | Ogden-Clearfield, Utah |
| 19 | Myrtle Beach-North Myrtle Beach-Conway, South Carolina |
| 20 | Greely, Colorado |
| 21 | Durham, North Carolina |
| 22 | Nashville-Davidson-Mufreesboro-Franklin, Tennessee |
| 23 | Dallas-Plano-Irving, Texas |
| 24 | Savannah, Georgia |
| 25 | Des Moines-West Des Moines, Iowa |
Here’s how the Des Moines area ranked overall in nine separate categories:
| Category | Score | Rank |
| 5-Year Job Growth (2002-2007) | 103.97 | 51 |
| 1-Year Job Growth (2006-2007) | 101.15 | 33 |
| 5-Year Wages & Salary Growth (2001-2006) | 106.82 | 50 |
| 1-Year Wages & Salary Growth (2005-2006) | 100.62 | 72 |
| Job Growth (March 2007 – March 2008) | 1.72% | 30 |
| 5-Year Relative HT GDP Growth (2002-2007) | 109.07 | 39 |
| 1-Year Relative HT GDP Growth (2006-2007) | 106.27 | 7 |
| High-Tech GDP LQ – 2007 | 3.0 | 141 |
By MulderDSM
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Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: Recognition
