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I'm shocked Dallas isn't winning this by a long shot. Its metro has by far the largest population of any of the cities listed. It has a very diversified economy and an unemployment rate of 4%.
I guess Atlanta is going to a get a lot of votes here because despite being 4th in metro population of the big South cities and the worst economy of them all, it is the only major city situated in the Deep South and it is the one that has Southern culture on full display.
That ceased to be the case several months ago at this point.
That ceased to be the case several months ago at this point.
I'm seeing Atlanta with a 6.1% unemployment rate.
Miami - 5.7%
Houston - 4.7%
Dallas - 4.1%
Atlanta still holds this honor, as it has for most of the past ten years (Miami had a higher unemployment rate for a couple of years in the depths of the recession).
Atlanta still holds this honor, as it has for most of the past ten years (Miami had a higher unemployment rate for a couple of years in the depths of the recession).
Unemployment rate is but one statistic and is not the end-all, be-all when it comes to determining the health of a metro's local economy. You have to look at a combination of factors, including job growth and others.
Atlanta still holds this honor, as it has for most of the past ten years (Miami had a higher unemployment rate for a couple of years in the depths of the recession).
- Most influential and culturally intertwined with the South: Atlanta
- Largest population, center for distribution, diverse economy, massive corporate base: Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex
- Most powerful, richest, and most broad-range diverse: Houston
- Most global, biggest brand name, leisure center: Miami
Atlanta still has a diverse economy, a massive center for distribution, and a large corporte base, just on a smaller scale than Dallas.
That's the thing. Atlanta combines many of these together. That's why I voted for Atlanta. Relatively diverse, very influential for a newer southern city, diverse economy with a strong middle class, great universities and colleges, increasingly becoming a leisure destination(our Aquarium is ranked #2 in the world by TripAdvisor along with cultural attractions like the MLK Center and birthhome), and has a pretty large, growing brand in the world(Not as much as Miami, but definitely moreso than Dallas and Houston). Jack of all trades, but a master of none in a sort of way if you get what I mean.
Not as good as it could be, but 6.1% unemployment isn't abysmal either and is definitely better than it has been in the recent past.
If you look at job growth numbers, you'll see Atlanta has been near or at the top for the past couple of months.
Try more like the last year or two. Job growth is high, but when 90k people are still moving to the metro every year, the unemployment rate simply can't drop fast enough. If we didn't so many people still trying to move here, the unemployment rate would already be below 5% with the way our job growth is. The thing is, when you're actually in Atlanta, it doesn't feel like a city that has a bad economy.
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