Nashville, TN Number one in Job Growth

Metro area population:
1.6 million

Current unemployment rate: 6.5% (vs. 8.2% nationally)

Job growth next five years: 18%

Number of new jobs: 140,000

Nashville wins the prize for fastest two-year job growth among all the metro areas on our list — four times as fast as the U.S. as a whole. Vanderbilt University, the largest employer, will continue to add a variety of health care, education and service jobs. Nissan North America will add manufacturing jobs at its auto assembly plant and office jobs at its Nashville-area headquarters.

The capital of country music has a vibrant tech sector fueled by its highly regarded universities, and is becoming a center of data processing functions for cloud computing. The city will continue to be the freight transportation center for the state and the region, adding thousands of service jobs. It’s the crossroads for truck and rail transport and a major center for UPS operations by land and air.

http://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/letters-cities-surprising-job-growth/2.html