February 5, 2010 http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/05/best-and-worst-job-markets-business-beltway-jobs.html?boxes=businesschannelsections
Unemployment is edging lower, but jobs are still pretty scarce. How scarce? Depends on where you are.
Those living in areas dependent on construction, manufacturing or hospitality remain mostly out of luck. Those carried by education, health care or government work are breathing a bit easier.
Which metro areas are showing sign of thawing, where relatively fewer people are chasing the most openings? Juju.com, a national job search engine, compiles a monthly list of job openings put out by corporations, staffing services companies and other various sources in the country's 50 largest metropolitan areas. The number of openings is divided into the number of unemployed people in each metro, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, to determine the ratio of job seekers to job openings. Nationwide, Juju.com's February numbers show an average of 6.8 people looking for each job posting that's out there, a slight improvement from January.
To assess each metro area's overall labor market health, Forbes combined the juju.com ratios with the current unemployment rate for each metro as measured by the BLS.
The healthiest job market: Washington, D.C., where there are fewer than two job seekers per opening, and where unemployment sits at 6.2%, a full 3.5 points below the national average.
In addition to the rudder provided by the constant supply of government jobs, D.C. "is also home to a lot of education and health care jobs, which have been pretty steady," says Brendan Cruickshank, a Juju.com vice president. Right behind are Midwestern metros Salt Lake City, Utah (known to be tax friendly) and Oklahoma City, Okla. (a healthy energy industry), both of which count just over three job seekers per opening.
"The Salt Lake City government has gone out of its way to be business friendly, providing incentives for companies to relocate there," says Cruickshank.
One trend that stands out among the strongest job markets: Seven of the 10 are capital cities (six state capitals in addition to the nation's capital). During tough times, government work brings stability. A notable exception is California, where a drowning state budget has led to layoffs and furloughs of state workers. The state's capital, Sacramento, ranks fourth from the bottom among the nation's 50 largest metros, with 12.3% unemployment and more than 10 idle workers for every job posting. Another struggling capital: Providence, R.I., a traditionally industrial area that's been hit by the manufacturing downturn.
Sunbelt cities that rely on tourism and hospitality also continue to struggle. Los Angeles, Miami, and Las Vegas all have ten or more unemployed people for every listed job opening, with Orlando close behind. An overbuilt real estate market hammered Miami and Las Vegas, both of which are dealing with unemployment above 13%. In hard-hit Tampa, where the unemployment rate is 12.4% and 7.1 job seekers vie for every want ad, at least one local industry is growing according to The St. Petersburg Times: psychics. People are looking for assurance that things will get better.
And of course there's Detroit, the decaying U.S. car capital that's suffering not just from the fall of the auto industry, but from the long economic trend away from manufacturing. The Detroit region has 18 unemployed people for every job opening, six more than any other major city.
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