The economies of the 40 biggest US cities, ranked from worst to best
Get the Full StoryCourtesy of TripAdvisorThe US economy varies in its biggest cities.
Metro areas such as San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, and San Jose have particularly strong economies; Cleveland, Virginia Beach, and Providence are much weaker.
That's according to our ranking, which ranks metro areas by taking into account their unemployment rate, average weekly wage, job growth rate, GDP per capita, and GDP growth rate.
The source of America's prosperity is its big cities.
Business Insider combined five measures of labor-market and general economic health for the 40 metropolitan statistical areas with the biggest 2017 populations to get a sense of where those big cities' economies stand. Those measures were the unemployment rate, average weekly wage, job growth rate, GDP per capita, and GDP growth rate. By putting those on a common scale and combining them, we were able to get a picture of the overall state of each metro area's economy.
Click here for our detailed sources and methods.
While we didn't include this as a factor in our ranking, we also pointed out some of the Fortune 1000 companies headquartered in those cities, as well as other highlights of the local economy.
Here's how the economies of the 40 biggest cities in the US are doing:40. Cleveland-Elyria, OH
Michael Conroy AP
Cleveland is home to 11 Fortune 1000 companies, including paint-maker Sherwin-Williams.
Cleveland had the highest February 2017 unemployment rate of 5.7 among the 40 biggest metro areas, and the city's job growth was the second-lowest, with non-farm payroll employment rising just 0.3 between February 2016 and February 2017.
39. Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC
Daniel Brown Business Insider
While no Fortune 1000 companies are headquartered in Virginia Beach, the metro area is home to several of the country's largest military installations.
Virginia Beach had the slowest job growth among the 40 biggest metro areas, with non-farm payrolls increasing just 0.2 between February 2017 and February 2018. The metro area was one of just two among the 40 biggest with negative economic growth in 2016, with a GDP growth rate of -1.1 .
38. Providence-Warwick, RI-MA
Sean Pavone Shutterstock
Providence hosts the headquarters of three Fortune 1000 companies, including Citizens Financial Group, the parent company of Citizens Bank.
Providence's metro area February 2018 unemployment rate of 5.3 was tied for second-highest among the 40 biggest metro areas, and the region's 2016 GDP per capita of 49,610 was sixth-lowest.
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