Area Development Report for 2017

This is the seventh year that Area Development has presented its 100 Leading Locations feature:

Leading Metro MSA Locations for 2017

Some 394 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) were ranked based on their performance in four key categories:
“Prime Workforce,”
“Economic Strength,”
“Year-Over-Year Growth"
"Five-Year Growth"

Area Development’s research desk compiled the statistics for this report. Locations were ranked according to the methodology explained herein.
This article was written by Mark Crawford, Staff Editor

These factors are, of course, all interconnected and ideally self-supporting. For example, a top-place ranking in five-year growth is often the result of positive performance in prime workforce, year-over-year economic growth, and economic strength. Larger, “big-city” MSAs tend to perform better overall than mid-size and small communities, simply because of their economic diversity and scale. They also tend to attract more worker inflow because of the opportunities and variety of lifestyles they provide

Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
2017 Overall Rank: 199
2017 Midterm Growth Rank: 2222017

Economic Strength Rank: 219

Prime Workforce Rank: 143
Year-Over-Year Growth Rank: 152

Ultimately, diversity is the key for long-term growth that can offer high-paying jobs and weather economic tides.
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