Looking for a home town where the job hunting is easy?

Steer clear of the high tech centers, but a variety of cities in the north, south, east, and west offer diverse, stable economies cranking out jobs even during hard times.

California, Texas and Florida cities are most often at the top of the heap, but job heavy cities can be found on every point of the compass according to "Best Performing Cities: Where America's Jobs Are Created," an index of employment centers conducted by the Milken Institute, a market and economic research firm with a focus on entrepreneurs.

The Milken index measures where jobs are being created, economies are growing and businesses are thriving and they are not tech meccas, but areas with substantial population growth and strong retail, government and health care industries.

The Top 20 Job Towns

• Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR
• Las Vegas, NV-AZ
• Fort Myers-Cape Coral, FL
• West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, FL
• San Diego, CA
• San Luis Obispo-Atascadero, CA
• Laredo, TX
• Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito, TX
• McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX
• Monmouth-Ocean, NJ
• Anchorage, AK
• Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC
• Chico-Paradise, CA
• Ventura, CA
• Sacramento, CA
• Houma, LA
• Vallejo-Fairfield-Napa, CA
• San Antonio, TX
• Washington, DC-MD-VA-WV
• Riverside-San Bernardino, CA

The index says a trend this year is the success of many cities where government and higher education play an important role in the local economy. Those industries are much less susceptible to business cycles.

The Best Performing Cities ranks 296 U.S. metro areas on a variety of factors.

Economic Dynamism Areas with a host of fast-growing "gazelle" companies, a diverse ecosystem, supported innovation and entrepreneurial capacity maintain economic dynamism.

Capital Access The availability of long-term capital for start-ups, primes the economic pump. Private equity and specialized venture capital (VC) firms can assist in business plan development, supply board members, lend management skills, suggest strategic partnerships and alliances, assist in expansion plans, and bring in key talent.

Human Capital People, well-educated people, are among a region's most valuable assets. Concentrations of talent attract firms looking for a location to set up shop. Knowledge, skills, experience and innovative potential offers greater value than capital equipment.

Innovation Capacity Regions with private, government and university-based research laboratories are key to economic development. R&D investments that strengthen local research efforts is attractive to both additional investors and firms seeking the latest innovations for the inherent competitive advantage.

Globalization/International Integration No city is an island -- especially in today's global economy. In a globalized world, success turns in part on a firm's ability to meet global quality standards and tap into a global distribution network; and, more importantly, on locating those regions that give them the best environment to exploit international opportunities. Regions that are connected to the world have a global reach to financial capital, human capital, innovation capacity and, eventually, expansion and growth.

Published: July 4, 2003

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.