The Milken Institute ranked the Cape Coral-Fort Myers metropolitan area as the second best in its annual "Best Performing Cities" list of the nation's 200 largest metro areas. The area ranked first on the 2005 list. Still, local economic growth remains solid.
The Milken Institute is a nonprofit California-based economic think tank founded. Florida communities took six of the top 10 rankings.
The ranking is based on a formula that includes growth in the number of jobs and the total earnings from those jobs from 1998 to 2003, plus gains from 2004 to 2005 and other factors. The overall growth in the population and the increase in the number of retirees played a role.
Growth in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers Metropolitan Statistical Area included industries such as medical services, and professional and business services sectors including architects, engineers, legal services and company management.
The Naples-Marco Island area in this part of Southwest Florida surged from No. 15 a year ago to No. 3 this year. The Palm Bay-Melbourne area on the east coast of Florida ranked first.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)