Area Development
{{RELATEDLINKS}}The Leading Locations for 2012 report ranked 365 MSAs across a range of economic and workforce indicators.

To calculate overal ranking within the "Recession-Busting Cities" cayegory, we looked at only the economic indicators ranking change from 2009 (just around the height of the recession) against the most recent data for that indicator. This provides some measure of which cities have come back the furthest from that lowest point. In the case of Per capita Real GDP, for which the most recent data available is from 2010, we looked at the 3-year change from 2007 (the year many agree the recession began) through 2010 (as the recession began to wane). This provides a measure of an MSAs overall resiliency in productivity during the recession. The top performers include many Midwest cities that had nowhere to go but up and are now creating jobs and attracting business as U.S. manufacturing backshoring accelerates; energy cities that continue to grow as U.S. energy consumption and extraction shift domestically; and some coastal cities with strong creative classes and high-tech activity.