Boston is among the top U.S. cities for jobs, as Forbes ranked the Hub eighth in its Best U.S. Cities for Jobs List in a list published Monday.
Forbes used statistics that accounted for factors such as unemployment rates, household incomes and projected job growth in the rankings.
“Boston’s solid educational and biotech industries kept unemployment low during the recession,” according to Forbes, adding that the city’s unemployment rate “is on its way back down to an expected 5 percent in 2016, while household income is expected to rise 17 percent to $94,000.”
The city’s unemployment rate was about 5.4 percent in December, according to the most recent data available from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, which placed the city below the state’s 6.5 percent rate for the same time period.
The nationwide unemployment rate in December was about 3 percent more than the Boston mark, 8.5 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
In addition to the Hub’s relatively low unemployment rates, the city also reported a general growth in the amount of available jobs in recent years.
“Boston continues to be one of the best job growth cities in the country,” according to the most recent city job report. “The city was . . . named number one among 100 major cities for job growth [in 2011].”
The report linked the city’s economic framework to its vigor in the job market, citing such factors as the strength of Boston’s four main economic areas – medicine, education, hospitality and financial services.
The report also listed Boston’s public education system as a contributing factor to the city’s competitive job environment.
“Education reform has driven graduation rates to record highs at Boston Public Schools,” the report states.
In 2011, about 64.4 percent of students who had entered high school four years earlier graduated from Boston Public Schools, the highest rate recorded, according to the Boston Public Schools website.
The site also reported the percentage of students who graduate from high school in four years has increased steadily in recent years.
D.C. was first on the Forbes list, followed by Des Moines and the Poughkeepsie-Newburgh area in New York.
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