The Ogden-Clearfield metropolitan area, including Layton City, leapt 13 slots, improving its 2020 No. 22 placement to this year’s No. 9 position, according to a new study — the Best-Performing Cities 2021: Foundations for Growth and Recovery report by the Milken Institute. The Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities index tracks the economic performance of about 400 US metropolitan statistical areas (MSA’s). The report examines job creation, wage gains, and high-tech GDP growth to compare the performance of selected cities relative to one another.
Milken researchers said the northern Utah metro was one of the few U.S. cities that “successfully battled the headwinds of COVID-19’s negative impacts on jobs.” Researchers also reported that the Ogden-Clearfield MSA moved up to second place in short-term job growth, one of only a handful of large cities (and the only Tier 1 city) to achieve positive job growth over the last 12 months.
The Milken Institute contends that cities drive economic growth nationwide. “They are the primary locations where businesses create new jobs and workers earn higher wages, keeping the United States competitive in the global economy. However, metro areas are also incredibly diverse. Each has unique characteristics generated through a combination of investment and policy choices that influence the community’s economic outcomes.”
The report also revealed that when it comes to the top performing economies in the country, Utah cities are passing California’s Bay Area heavyweights. The Provo-Orem metropolitan area earned a highly coveted No. 1 ranking in the study.
The Milken Institute report, found here, details how cities across the country have weathered the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, evaluating data that cover jobs, wages, high-tech growth, housing affordability and household broadband access.