The Cities Leading a US Manufacturing Revival

We used five measures of growth to rank MSAs over the past 10 years. “Large” areas include those with a current nonfarm employment base of at least 450,000 jobs. “Midsize” areas range from 150,000 to 450,000 jobs. “Small” areas have as many as 150,000 jobs. This year’s rankings reflect the new Office of Management and Budget definitions of MSAs for all series released after March 2015. As a result, the MSA listed in this year’s rankings do not necessary correspond directly to those listed in prior years. In some instances, MSAs were consolidated with others — for example Pascagoula, MS, was combined with the Gulfport-Biloxi, MS, MSA to form the new Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, MS, MSA. Others were separated from previously consolidated MSAs and in still other instances individual counties were shifted from one MSA to another. The bottom line is that this year’s rankings are based on good time series for the newly defined MSAs but may not be precisely comparable to those listed in prior years. The total number of MSAs included in this year’s rankings has risen from 398 to 421. This year’s rankings reflect the current size of each MSA’s employment.