Raleigh tumbled to 13, down 10 spots, in the Milken Institute’s annual ranking of best-performing cities.
Austin, Texas took the top spot this year in the institute’s Best-Performing Cities Index, followed by Provo, Utah, which jumped from seventh place last year. San Francisco took third place, up from No. 36; San Jose was No. 4, down from No. 1 last year; and Salt Lake City moved up one spot this year to No. 5.
Technology and energy were the main drivers for the cities that ranked high on this year’s list.
“Austin’s technology base is highly diversified and has been performing admirably,” Milken said.
Milken touts its rankings as a “fact-based, comprehensive metric system” measuring job, wage and technology trends. Statistics measured by Milken for the rankings include job growth, wage and salary growth, high-tech GDP growth, and a measure called high-tech location quotient – a measure of the tech industry’s concentration in a particular metro area relative to the national average.
The index does not factor in inputs such as business costs, cost-of-living measures, and quality-of-life statistics. Such measures are often cited on other lists, some of which rank the Triangle quite favorably. But Milken said that those measures “are prone to wide variations and can be highly subjective.”
The Raleigh-Cary metropolitan area was hurt in the Milken rankings by its performance in jobs and wage growth. Measuring job growth from 2007 to 2012, Raleigh-Cary ranked 29. One year job growth from 2011 to 2012 was only slightly better with a ranking of 24. Salary growth from 2006 to 2011 ranked the Raleigh-Cary area at 30 overall.
