Forbes revises list, puts SLC at No. 1 on 'Best Cities for Jobs' list

Forbes.com has revised its published Best Cities For Jobs list, putting Salt Lake City in the top spot, replacing Raleigh, N.C., which had topped the list in the report when it was published in February.

The re-ranking is based on complete 2006 data that was not available when the list was first published.

Salt Lake City took the top spot based on it having become a tech sector hub attracting tech industries that had previously located in California's Silicon Valley, and a low unemployment rate.

Forbes.com used a criteria list of five points in ranking its Best Cities for Jobs list, including unemployment rate, job growth, income growth, median household income and cost of living for full-year 2006.

Salt Lake City ranked second for unemployment (Hawaii has the lowest unemployment rate in the country to take the top spot in that category). In median household income Salt Lake ranked at No. 19; income growth rank and job growth both were ranked at No. 4 in the country and cost of living rank was at No. 37.

By comparison, Raleigh rankings were No. 17 for unemployment rate, No. 30 for median household income, No. 12 for income growth, No. 5 for job growth and No. 47 for cost of living.

Large metropolitan cities, which are expected to rank higher due to larger economies and more jobs, were ranked toward the middle to bottom of the list, with New York coming in at No. 63, up from its 99 in 2005. San Francisco came in at No. 31, up from 86. Washington, D.C., fell to 32 from its No. 5 in 2005. New toward the top of the list were Tulsa, Albuquerque, Wichita and Oklahoma City.