The Top 20 Small Cities With The Best Employment Prospects

The Top 20 Small Cities With The Best Employment Prospects

Forbes recently published an article that highlights the best small cities for business, and for employment prospects. Rather than focusing on the giants, like New York, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago, which so many big companies call home, they have looked to the smaller cities that offer a lower overall cost of living, a more family-friendly atmosphere and lower crime rates than what the big cities offer. They also have cleaner air, less crowded schools and, in many cases, the same types of opportunities that the big cities offer.

The number one small city on the list for the seventh year in a row is Sioux Falls, SD. South Dakota is one of those states that does not individual or corporate income taxes. Combine that with business costs that are about 26% below the national average and an economy that is expected to expand, rather than to decline, and you have the makings of a corporate-friendly, consumer-savvy place to do business. It still has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, at 4.3%, that happens to have actually doubled in the last three years. Unemployment has been so low at times that employers have had trouble filling jobs.

Forbes uses strict guidelines to make these determinations. In order to qualify as a "small city" the population has to be under 245,000 in a metropolitan statistical area. Then they consider living and business costs, past and present job growth, projected economic growth, educational opportunities, the quality of life, migration trends and subprime mortgages. There are 12 factors in all.

Joining Sioux Falls at the top is Manhattan, KS, Bismarck, ND, and Logan, UT, though the state of Iowa stands heads above the rest with five metro areas falling within the top 20 on the list. These cities are: Iowa City (#2), Waterloo (#13), Sioux City (#14), Dubuque (#15) and Ames (#17). Des Moines was top on the list for the bigger metros with populations above 245,000. Sioux Falls, SD may fall off the list of small cities as its population grows, but will no doubt be competing for Des Moines on the "big boy" list.

The other cities that round out the list of the top 20 small cities for business and careers are:

6thAuburn, AL

7thBend, OR

8thColumbia, MO

9thFargo, ND

10thMorgantown, WV

11thRapid City, SD

12thLafayette, IN

16thBloomington, IN

Some of these, in fact, most of these may be a surprise, but any one of them, in my opinion, would beat Los Angeles, New York or Houston, hands down.

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