Best Cities for Manufacturing
The methodology for the 2013 rankings for best cities for manufacturing jobs parallels that used for our 2013 Best Cities for Job Growth rankings. Instead of using Total Nonfarm Employment, the manufacturing rankings use employment in manufacturing (supersector 30) in the BLS MSA employment data. The manufacturing rankings include the 357 MSAs for which there are sectoral employment data for all 12 years used in our analysis.
2013 Mfg Rank - Large MSAs | Area | 2013 Weighted MFG INDEX | 2012 MFG Employment (1000s) | 2012 Mfg Rank - Large MSAs | 2013 Mfg Rank Change from 2012 |
1 | Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX | 87.1 | 248.3 | 4 | 3 |
2 | Louisville-Jefferson County, KY-IN | 82.2 | 72.5 | 47 | 45 |
3 | Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA Metropolitan Division | 80.4 | 169.9 | 1 | (2) |
4 | Oklahoma City, OK | 79.1 | 35.6 | 2 | (2) |
5 | Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, MI Metropolitan Division | 77.2 | 143.3 | 5 | 0 |
6 | Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN | 75.7 | 70.4 | 48 | 42 |
7 | Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC | 75.4 | 55.1 | 33 | 26 |
8 | Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI Metropolitan Division | 71.0 | 80.4 | 24 | 16 |
9 | Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metropolitan Division | 70.1 | 92.8 | 9 | 0 |
10 | Salt Lake City, UT | 67.8 | 55.7 | 3 | (7) |
11 | San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX | 64.9 | 47.0 | 7 | (4) |
12 | Birmingham-Hoover, AL | 64.5 | 37.5 | 46 | 34 |
13 | Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC | 64.3 | 71.0 | 22 | 9 |
14 | Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI | 59.5 | 119.5 | 10 | (4) |
15 | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | 59.2 | 181.5 | 15 | 0 |
16 | Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX | 59.2 | 51.1 | 8 | (8) |
17 | Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, FL Metropolitan Division | 58.0 | 26.7 | 16 | (1) |
18 | San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | 57.7 | 156.5 | 11 | (7) |
19 | Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA | 57.4 | 31.6 | 14 | (5) |
20 | Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA Metropolitan Division | 56.9 | 158.0 | 20 | 0 |
21 | Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ | 56.6 | 117.8 | 43 | 22 |
22 | Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO | 56.3 | 63.4 | 34 | 12 |
23 | Indianapolis-Carmel, IN | 55.3 | 83.7 | 50 | 27 |
24 | Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA | 54.8 | 114.7 | 19 | (5) |
25 | Cincinnati-Middletown, OH-KY-IN | 54.7 | 106.0 | 6 | (19) |
26 | Pittsburgh, PA | 54.1 | 89.3 | 28 | 2 |
27 | Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH | 53.9 | 122.4 | 18 | (9) |
28 | Columbus, OH | 53.0 | 65.6 | 21 | (7) |
29 | Sacramento--Arden-Arcade--Roseville, CA | 52.6 | 34.1 | 57 | 28 |
30 | San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA | 52.5 | 93.1 | 29 | (1) |
31 | Honolulu, HI | 52.4 | 10.8 | 36 | 5 |
32 | Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA | 51.6 | 148.8 | 25 | (7) |
33 | Raleigh-Cary, NC | 51.2 | 27.2 | 45 | 12 |
34 | Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL Metropolitan Division | 50.9 | 324.7 | 26 | (8) |
35 | Nassau-Suffolk, NY Metropolitan Division | 49.3 | 73.4 | 35 | 0 |
36 | Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY | 49.0 | 50.9 | 12 | (24) |
37 | Jacksonville, FL | 47.6 | 28.0 | 53 | 16 |
38 | Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA NECTA Division | 47.2 | 91.5 | 23 | (15) |
39 | Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT NECTA | 46.7 | 56.8 | 27 | (12) |
40 | Bergen-Hudson-Passaic, NJ | 46.5 | 60.2 | 17 | (23) |
41 | San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA Metropolitan Division | 44.9 | 36.2 | 37 | (4) |
42 | Oakland-Fremont-Hayward, CA Metropolitan Division | 43.5 | 79.9 | 44 | 2 |
43 | St. Louis, MO-IL | 42.0 | 109.0 | 31 | (12) |
44 | Providence-Fall River-Warwick, RI-MA NECTA | 41.6 | 50.8 | 36 | (8) |
45 | Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX Metropolitan Division | 40.9 | 164.2 | 30 | (15) |
46 | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA Metropolitan Division | 40.8 | 362.7 | 49 | 3 |
47 | Memphis, TN-MS-AR | 40.2 | 43.7 | 42 | (5) |
48 | Las Vegas-Paradise, NV | 39.0 | 20.2 | 51 | 3 |
49 | Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | 38.7 | 37.7 | 40 | (9) |
50 | Philadelphia City, PA | 38.6 | 23.1 | 55 | 5 |
51 | West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach, FL Metropolitan Division | 37.1 | 15.2 | 56 | 5 |
52 | New York City, NY | 35.7 | 75.2 | 58 | 6 |
53 | Edison-New Brunswick, NJ Metropolitan Division | 34.0 | 58.4 | 64 | 11 |
54 | Richmond, VA | 33.9 | 31.9 | 65 | 11 |
55 | Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | 33.3 | 58.9 | 41 | (14) |
56 | Rochester, NY | 32.9 | 57.9 | 32 | (24) |
57 | New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA | 32.1 | 29.8 | 38 | (19) |
58 | Northern Virginia, VA | 30.7 | 21.9 | 39 | (19) |
59 | Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick, MD Metropolitan Division | 30.5 | 15.8 | 54 | (5) |
60 | Kansas City, MO | 29.6 | 37.8 | 13 | (47) |
61 | Putnam-Rockland-Westchester, NY | 27.7 | 24.5 | 63 | 2 |
62 | Newark-Union, NJ-PA Metropolitan Division | 27.5 | 63.4 | 52 | (10) |
63 | Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL Metropolitan Division | 26.8 | 35.0 | 59 | (4) |
64 | Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | 25.5 | 86.4 | 62 | (2) |
65 | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Division | 24.6 | 32.0 | 61 | (4) |
66 | Camden, NJ Metropolitan Division | 21.9 | 35.3 | 60 | (6) |