Fort Wayne area ranks 13th out of 200 cities for job growth, according to survey

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - The Milken Institute has released a survey for best-performing cities of 2012 on Monday. When it comes to job growth in the within that time span, Fort Wayne has done well.

The Milken Institute is an independent research organization that looks into a several factors when it comes to growing local economies. This group looks into stable and expanding employment, wages and salary increases, and thriving economies and businesses. Fort Wayne has ranked 13th in the category of job growth between May 2011 and May 2012.

See the full report from 2013

"It's affirmation that we have come out of the great recession in terms of job recovery, job growth relatively strong, compared to a number of other metropolitan areas," said John Stafford, Director of Community Research Institute at IPFW.

For the purposes of the study, the Fort Wayne area consisted of Allen, Whitley, and Wells counties. The Summit City outranked other Indiana cities such as Indianapolis (63rd), Evansville (188th), and South Bend (73rd).

"It's really good when Milken or others from the outside look inside and say look at the progress that they're making," said President and CEO of Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership, John Sampson.

Sampson said this survey reflects the efforts of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership, helping local businesses with tools to prosper and stay in the area.

Stafford said manufacturing, retail, leisure and hospitality, and health and educational services were the strongest sectors when it came to job growth here in Fort Wayne, but there's still more work that needs to be done.

"We need to continue to work on things like upgrading the quality of our workforce, continue to work with our local companies to help them with opportunities for them to expand," Stafford said.

Nearly 10 years ago, Fort Wayne ranked 113th in job growth between April 2002 to April 2003.

See the full report from 2003