Six years ago the U.S. economy experienced the most severe economic downturn since the 1930s. For many American metro areas, the Great Recession is nothing more than a distant shadow of a troubled economic past. Yet for some towns, the effects of the recession still linger as they fall deeper in debt.
Dr. Andrew Chamberlain, a senior economist at Glassdoor, recently analyzed economic data to come up with a “recovery index” for U.S. cities. To do this, he looked at three major trends: unemployment, the number of jobs, and wages. Combining all of these together gives you Glassdoor’s Recovery Index.
The index is the sum of three percentages: the percentage decrease in an area’s unemployment rate; the percentage change in employment; and the percentage change in mean hourly wages since 2009. The higher a metropolitan area is on the index, the better its economic health, Chamberlain wrote.
Here are the top 10 areas that have recovered the most since the recession:
- Midland, Texas
- Odessa, Texas
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California
- Greely, Colorado
- Provo-Orem, Utah
- Laredo, Texas
- Houston- The Woodlands-Sugar Land, Texas
- Ames, Iowa
- Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, North Carolina- South Carolina
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Where does your city stack up? Should you consider moving? Whether you need to finance a home in a new location or our looking for another career opportunity, Castle & Cooke Mortgage has 36 branch locations across the country to serve you.
