Congrats! You Live in a 'Best Performing' City If You Live in Lehigh Valley

The Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton metropolitan area ranks among our country's "best-performing" cities in a new report.

"The 2012 Milken Institute Best-Performing Cities Index ranks U.S. metropolitan areas by how well they are creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth. The components include job, wage and salary, and technology growth. In most years, these give a good indication of the underlying structural performance of regional economics."

The Lehigh Valley moved up one spot in the national ranking -- improving its position from 66 in 2011 to 65 in 2012.

Here's a snapshot of the Lehigh Valley's ranking factors.

Among large cities, Lehigh Valley ranked:

• 55th in five-year job growth
• 60th in one-year job growth
• 89th in five-year salary growth

Read more: The Lehigh Valley has also been ranked as a Top Community for Investment.

Key findings of the report include:

• San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif., vaulted 50 spots from last year to lead our Best Performing Large Cities Index, a position it last held in the 2002 rankings.
• Texas metros didn't dominate the rankings quite as much as last year but still took three of the Top 10 positions and seven of the Top 25.
• Tech centers performed well, holding 12 of the Top 25 positions. In addition to San Jose, Austin-Round Rock, Texas; Raleigh-Cary, N.C.; Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV; Salt Lake City, Utah, and Cambridge-Newton-Framingham, Mass., were in the Top 10.
• Logan, Utah-Idaho remained the best Small City for 2012 with the help of a thriving technology sector.
• Holland-Grand Haven, Mich., enjoyed the biggest surge, rising 108 spots.