Need more proof that Utah's economy is booming? Gallup pegs Salt Lake City as the top job-creating metro in the country.
The latest Gallup job creation index has Salt Lake City tied with Austin, Texas as the cities creating the most jobs right now. They are closely followed by San Francisco, Houston, Orlando and San Jose.
Salt Lake City has consistently ranked in the top-five of job creating metro areas over the past three years.
The rankings are based on whether employers are hiring workers or letting them go.
The metros with the lowest rate of job creation are Riverside, California, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Memphis and Providence, Rhode Island.
The U.S. job market has steadily improved since the depths of the 2008-2009 recession, and the largest metro areas have tended to show an even better job situation than the country as a whole. In particular, metro areas with strong or emerging technology industries rank among those with the greatest hiring activity, based on workers' reports of what is happening at their own workplaces. Metro areas that are successful in attracting workers in a certain growth industry — be it technology, energy or health — will likely reap even greater benefits as the growing job base has snowball effects that lead to job creation in industries, like construction, to support the growing workforce living there.
