50 Metro Areas 8 Indicators November 2026

U.S. Metro Economic Health

A composite economic health score for the 50 largest U.S. metros — ranking labor demand, unemployment, wage growth, cost of living, and housing into a single 0–100 grade.

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#1 Ranked Metro — November 2026
A+
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City-Murray
77.6 composite score
GROWING
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47.7
Median Score
across 50 metros
17
Average or Better
graded B or higher
37
Growing Markets
STRONG or GROWING signal
50
Metros Scored
largest U.S. MSAs
▲ Top Performing Markets — November 2026
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#1 GROWING
Salt Lake City
A+ 77.6
#2 STRONG
St. Louis
A+ 73.7
#3 STRONG
Austin
A+ 73.6
#4 STRONG
Hartford
A+ 73.0
#5 STRONG
Charlotte
A+ 72.4
#6 STRONG
Raleigh
A 71.0
#7 STRONG
Philadelphia
A 69.8
▼ Markets Under Pressure
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#50 SQUEEZE
Louisville
D 22.0
#49 SQUEEZE
Chicago
D 22.5
#48 SQUEEZE
Detroit
D 24.5
#47 WEAK
Richmond
D 25.1
#46 GROWING
Grand Rapids
D 26.1
#45 SQUEEZE
Indianapolis
D 28.2
#44 GROWING
Jacksonville
C- 30.7

Labor Market Signal Distribution

Each metro is classified by its labor market scenario — combining employment growth direction with weekly hours deviation from each city's own 12-month baseline. The signal captures what employment alone cannot: whether growth is genuine demand or a survivor squeeze.

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STRONG
22 metros
22
GROWING
15 metros
15
SQUEEZE
9 metros
9
WEAK
4 metros
4
N/A
0 metros
0

How the Score Works

A composite of 8 economic indicators, weighted by their signal quality and data timeliness.

8
Indicators, One Score
Labor demand, unemployment, wage growth, cost of living, labor force growth, building permits, days on market, and office economy — combined into a single weighted composite.
0–100
Percentile-Ranked
Every metric is scored as a percentile rank across all 50 metros simultaneously. A score of 75 means this city outperforms 75% of its peers on that measure. Immune to outliers and self-calibrating as conditions change.
85 / 15
Employment / Housing Split
85% of the score comes from employment metrics — the direct measure of labor market health. Housing gets 15%, capturing whether workers can afford to live where businesses need them.

Grade Distribution — 50 Metros

Grade thresholds →
9
A Tier
A+ / A / A-
18% of metros
13
B Tier
B+ / B / B-
26% of metros
22
C Tier
C+ / C / C-
44% of metros
6
D
D
12% of metros

Explore All 50 Metro Areas

Full rankings table with scores, grades, and key economic metrics for every metropolitan area.

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