Looking for a Happy Workforce? Focus on These 10 Metros, Says Portfolio.com

NEW YORK, May 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Portfolio.com, the national business news site for small and mid-sized business executives, today revealed the major markets that offer the best quality of life in America as part of its provocative new U.S. Uncovered series. The study compared the performances of America's 67 biggest metropolitan areas in 20 statistical categories and the highest scores went to well-rounded markets with healthy economies, moderate costs of living, light traffic, impressive housing stocks and high-powered educational systems.

"We understand the difficulty of trying to get a business going in a new territory. By identifying the categories that define the best qualities of living, we hope that this will alleviate the uncertainties that SMB owners may have so that they could get the most out of a positive experience," said J. Jennings Moss, editor of Portfolio.com.

Topping the Portfolio.com quality-of-life list was Raleigh, which edged out two metropolitan areas that are substantially larger, Washington, D.C. at #2 and Minneapolis-St. Paul at #3. Rounding out the top 10 are Bridgeport-Stamford, Conn., Salt Lake City, Denver, Seattle, Boston, Austin and San Jose.

"There are several factors that pushed Raleigh to the top of the list, with it being the only major market that's expanding and growing at a rapid pace, resulting in a metropolitan population increase of 37 percent since 2000," said G. Scott Thomas, a nationally-recognized demographer who creates the analyses for Portfolio.com. "Raleigh has a well-educated workforce and an impressive supply of high-level jobs, not to mention its low unemployment rate and its impressive array of big houses."

Two California markets ended up at the opposite end of the list with Bakersfield coming in last and Fresno a notch higher in 66th place. Also in the bottom five are New Orleans, Memphis and Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif.

"Bakersfield has the highest poverty rate of any major market, as well as the lightest concentration of management and professional jobs, weakest inventory of big houses, and smallest percentages in the three educational categories that track adults with high school diplomas, bachelor's degrees and advanced degrees," added Thomas.

*Happy Workforce Attributes

Looking to see where the happy workforce is? Take a look at metros that have the most self-employed workers and the highest concentration of management and professional jobs. Rounding out the top five cities that have the most self-employed workers include Bridgeport-Stamford, Conn. with the highest percentage of 14.3, followed by Oxnard-Thousand Oaks, Calif., Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco-Oakland.

Washington, D.C. ranked as the #1 metro with 50 percent of the population having management and professional jobs. Right behind Washington, D.C. includes San Jose, Boston, Raleigh and San Francisco-Oakland.

*Just for fun: Shorter Commutes and Large Houses

No one likes to sit in traffic all day. This study revealed that Omaha had the shortest commuting time to work, showing an average of 19.34 minutes. Following right behind was Rochester, NY, Dayton, Buffalo and Tulsa. On the other hand, New York City, even with all the public transportation available in the city, recorded the longest average commuting time at 34.55 minutes.

It's everyone's dream to have a large house with many rooms as possible. But interested in knowing which metros had the most houses with nine or more rooms? Washington, D.C. came in first place with 21.3 percent of the population having nine or more rooms, then Minneapolis-St. Paul, Bridgeport-Stamford, Conn., Salt Lake City, and Denver.

The U.S. Uncovered series – new this year to Portfolio.com – provides original, insightful analysis of the American lifestyle and business trends of interest to the highly lucrative market of small- and mid-sized business executives, who will fuel the country's economic recovery over the next five years.  Most recently, the U.S. Uncovered revealed the "Best Cities to have fun," ranking New York City as #1. U.S. Uncovered also disclosed the rankings of the "Top U.S. Wealth Centers," naming Newport Beach as #1; "Small Business Vitality," naming Texas the best state and Austin the top city for small business; and "Best Places for Young Adults," naming the Southwestern region the new frontier for young Americans with Austin as #1.

About Portfolio.com

Portfolio.com is the national business news site for small and mid-sized business executives. Comprising original, in-depth reporting, thought-provoking insights, colorful features, exclusive analysis of custom research, and an intelligent business-news filtering tool, Portfolio.com is the first national business media outlet dedicated solely to delivering actionable news and information to this coveted audience. Portfolio.com relaunched in December 2009 as the information destination for business executives, insiders and strategists within the growing and profitable American City Business Journals.

About American City Business Journals

American City Business Journals engages 13.5 million decision makers each month through the company's 40 newsweeklies, 42 Web sites, digital newsletters and more than 400 local events across the country. It is the largest publisher of business-to-business information in the United States. More than 4 million readers each week engage with exclusive, in-depth coverage of local business communities; some 9 million unique monthly users engage with the company's digital content; more than 11 million e-newsletters are delivered each month via email; and the company sees more than 1 million mobile page views each month. American City is a unit of Advance Publications Inc., which also operates Condé Nast Magazines, Parade magazine, Fairchild Publications, the Golf Digest companies, Newhouse Newspapers and cable television interests.

SOURCE Portfolio.com