USA's 100 largest cities driving economic growth

Big cities are dominating the recovery, leaving the rest of America behind

There are two American economies right now: big cities and everyone else.

By Jim Tankersley November 18 at 10:41 AM  Follow @jimtankersley

As of the third quarter of this year, according to a Brookings analysis of Moody’s Analytics data, America’s 100 largest metro areas were collectively 1.3 million jobs over their pre-recession peak. All the other parts of the country, combined, were still 300,000 jobs below peak. That’s a 1.5 percent gain for the big metros and a 0.7 percent loss for everywhere else. The gap would be much wider if not for an oil- and gas-drilling bonanza that is lifting job growth in North Dakota and other largely rural areas.

This isn’t how the economy typically worked over the last 35 years. Calculations made earlier this year by state economists in Oregon show that big cities tended to grow at rate similar to other areas of the country after a recession. Only the late 1990s were an exception. Until now.

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