Bullish on jobs? These 10 cities are.

Our list of the 10 metro areas that saw the most job growth in 2011 might surprise you.

2. Casper, Wyo.: +5.9 percent

Dan Cepeda/Star-Tribune/AP/File
Ashley Bright, of the Boys & Girls Club of Central Wyoming, poses last month with a restored 1955 Buick Special at Z's Classics in Casper, Wyo., which is to be raffled off to raise money for the club. Casper notched the second-largest percentage growth in jobs among US metro areas last year. Forbes has ranked Casper as one of the nation's most family friendly small cities.

Casper may be the smallest of the Top 10 job-growth metros, but it represents around 10 percent of Wyoming’s population, with around 75,000 inhabitants. Close to 25 percent of its residents have a bachelor’s degree, and 92 percent identify as white. The city has a low poverty rate – 7.4 percent, seven percentage points below the national average. Top workforce sectors include government, health care, retail, accommodations, and mining. It’s also a regional center in commerce and banking. The county seat of Natrona County, Casper has a history rooted in the cowboy and big oilman tradition. With residents spending only 17 percent of their income on housing costs, Forbes magazine ranked Casper as one of the nation’s most family friendly small cities. 

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

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If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

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We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

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