• American Economy,  Polling

    Poll Watch: Oklahoma City Leads America in Job Creation for Metropolitan Areas – Pittsburgh Second

    According to the latest Gallup Poll.

    Oklahoma City, Okla., had the highest score on Gallup’s Job Creation Index among the 50 largest U.S. metro areas in 2011, followed by Pittsburgh, Pa., and several Southern metros. More than one in three workers in each of the top-performing metro areas said their employer was hiring or expanding the size of its workforce, but Oklahoma City led because of the relatively low percentage of workers (12%) who said their employer was letting workers go or decreasing the size of its workforce.

    The metro areas surrounding Richmond, Va., Nashville, Tenn., and Orlando, Fla., complete the top five large metro areas with the highest Job Creation Index scores.

    The results are based on Gallup Daily tracking interviews with U.S. workers conducted from January-December 2011. Gallup interviewed at least 698 respondents in each of the 50 largest metro areas in 2011, including 1,000 or more in 38 metro areas. Nationwide in 2011, an average of 31% of U.S. workers said their employer was hiring, while 18% said their employer was letting workers go, for a U.S. Job Creation Index score of +13.

    The top-performing large metro areas have above-average hiring levels combined with below-average levels of letting go, resulting in high Job Creation Index scores. On the other side of the spectrum, some metro areas have relatively low hiring combined with high levels of letting go, resulting in low Job Creation Index scores.

    Providence, R.I., Riverside, Calif., New York City, Sacramento, Calif., and Buffalo, N.Y., rank as the bottom five in net hiring among large U.S. metro areas.

    Read the rest of the polling report.

    Unfortunately, California and Nevada continue to struggle in the job hiring and letting go fronts.

    What are the implications?

    More employees will leave California for greener pastures in other less costly states, compounding on an already devastating California budget deficit.

    And, in Nevada, voters may seek their revenge by voting out President Barack Obama in this Electoral College key battleground state.