The Texas Jobs Machine

Eleven of the top 25 cities on Forbes's "Best Cities for Jobs" list (which ranked all 398 standard metropolitan areas in the United States) are in Texas. That includes four of the top five large cities, three of the top five mid-sized cities, and three of the top five small cities. Bryan-College Station, home of Texas A&M and a new biomedical research corridor among other enterprise development areas, is fourth overall in the nation.

[N]o place displayed more vibrancy than Texas. The Lone Star State dominated the three size categories, with the No. 1 mid-sized city, El Paso (No. 3 overall, up 22 places from last year) and No.1 large metropolitan area Austin (No. 6 overall), joining Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood (the No. 1 small city) atop their respective lists.

Texas also produced three other of the top 10 smallest regions, including energy-dominated No. 4 Midland, which gained 41 places overall, and No. 10 Odessa, whose economy jumped a remarkable 57 places. It also added two other mid-size cities to its belt: No. 2 Corpus Christi and No. 4 McAllen-Edinburgh-Mission.

In contrast, California continues to stink it up.

Whatever they are drinking in Texas, other states may want to imbibe. California–which boasted zero regions in the top 150–is a prime example. Indeed, a group of California officials, led by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, recently trekked to the Lone Star State to learn possible lessons about what drives job creation. Gov. Jerry Brown and others in California’s hierarchy may not be ready to listen, despite the fact that the city Brown formerly ran, Oakland, ranked absolute last, No. 65, among the big metros in our survey, two places behind perennial also-ran No. 63 Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich.

Paul Krugman may not care to admit it, but Texas is, by far, the biggest center for job creation in the country.