"Gazelle" Jobs

Jobs in gazelle companies (companies with annual sales revenue growth 20 percent or more for four straight years) as a share of total employment.

Why Is This Important? The degree to which a metro's economy is composed of new, rapidly growing firms, known as gazelles, is indicative of the degree to which the economy is dynamic and adaptive, which is a key driver of the New Economy. It is not small firms per se that are the key, it is the relatively small number of fast-growing firms of all sizes that account for the lion's share of new jobs created in the 1990s. Between 1994 and 1998, gazelles (which number over 355,000) generated practically as many jobs (10.7 million) as the entire U.S. economy (11.1 million).13

The Rankings: High-ranking metropolitan areas tend to be in the South and West, which are experiencing high rates of overall job growth (where fast retail growth, for example, would lead to more gazelles). But some metropolitan areas with slower overall growth rates, such as St. Louis, Hartford, and Milwaukee, also have large numbers of gazelle firms. Some high-tech regions, such as Seattle and Raleigh, have low levels of gazelle firms, perhaps in part because both areas are dominated by large firms that are past their fast-growth phase. In addition, many high-tech jobs in Raleigh are in branch plants of larger corporations, reflecting that region's focus on industrial recruitment.

		100th-76th Percentile
		75th-51st Percentile
		50th-26th Percentile
		25th-1st Percentile

METRO AREAS BY RANK
Rank	Metro Area	Score
1	Orlando	16.2%
2	Las Vegas	14.5%
3	Charlotte	12.6%
4	San Francisco	11.9%
5	Phoenix	11.2%
6	Houston	11.2%
7	Tampa	11.0%
8	Miami	10.9%
9	Salt Lake City	10.6%
10	St. Louis	10.6%
11	Hartford	10.6%
12	Los Angeles	10.6%
13	Kansas City	10.5%
14	West Palm Beach	10.4%
15	Jacksonville	10.4%
16	Milwaukee	10.3%
17	San Diego	10.2%
18	Minneapolis	10.2%
19	Dallas	10.1%
20	Buffalo	10.1%
21	Atlanta	10.0%
22	Austin	9.9%
23	Philadelphia	9.8%
24	Louisville	9.7%
25	Denver	9.6%
26	Portland	9.5%
27	New Orleans	9.5%
28	Chicago	9.4%
29	Washington	9.4%
30	Cincinnati	9.4%
31	Greensboro	9.4%
32	Cleveland	9.4%
33	Richmond	9.2%
34	Nashville	9.2%
35	Grand Rapids	8.9%
36	Memphis	8.8%
37	New York	8.7%
38	Indianapolis	8.6%
39	Columbus	8.5%
40	Rochester	8.4%
41	Pittsburgh	8.4%
42	Boston	8.3%
43	Sacramento	8.2%
44	Detroit	8.1%
45	San Antonio	8.0%
46	Oklahoma City	8.0%
47	Dayton	7.8%
48	Raleigh-Durham	7.2%
49	Seattle	7.0%
50	Norfolk	5.9%
	U.S. Average	9.6%
	Top 50 Metro Average	9.7%

ALPHABETICALLY
Metro Area	Rank	Score
Atlanta	21	10.0%
Austin	22	9.9%
Boston	42	8.3%
Buffalo	20	10.1%
Charlotte	3	12.6%
Chicago	28	9.4%
Cincinnati	30	9.4%
Cleveland	32	9.4%
Columbus	39	8.5%
Dallas	19	10.1%
Dayton	47	7.8%
Denver	25	9.6%
Detroit	44	8.1%
Grand Rapids	35	8.9%
Greensboro	31	9.4%
Hartford	11	10.6%
Houston	6	11.2%
Indianapolis	38	8.6%
Jacksonville	15	10.4%
Kansas City	13	10.5%
Las Vegas	2	14.5%
Los Angeles	12	10.6%
Louisville	24	9.7%
Memphis	36	8.8%
Miami	8	10.9%
Milwaukee	16	10.3%
Minneapolis	18	10.2%
Nashville	34	9.2%
New Orleans	27	9.5%
New York	37	8.7%
Norfolk	50	5.9%
Oklahoma City	46	8.0%
Orlando	1	16.2%
Philadelphia	23	9.8%
Phoenix	5	11.2%
Pittsburgh	41	8.4%
Portland	26	9.5%
Raleigh-Durham	48	7.2%
Richmond	33	9.2%
Rochester	40	8.4%
Sacramento	43	8.2%
Salt Lake City	9	10.6%
San Antonio	45	8.0%
San Diego	17	10.2%
San Francisco	4	11.9%
Seattle	49	7.0%
St. Louis	10	10.6%
Tampa	7	11.0%
Washington	29	9.4%
West Palm Beach	14	10.4%

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The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI)
Technology, Innovation, and New Economy Project
600 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E., Suite 400, Washington DC 20003
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