Despite dreary reports on the lagging economy, certain American cities are in fact hiring. Hiring a lot, it seems. For while our national unemployment rate increased, major metropolitan areas report an increase in private-sector hiring. In fact, according to data from US Department of Labor, more than 90 percent of the country’s largest metro areas experienced a drop in unemployment in April.

Don’t get too excited yet. Or…okay, maybe little bit excited.
Marketwatch reported on this data too, quoting Charles Purdy, Senior Editor for Internet job board giant Monster.com. He points out that one reason for the uptick “is likely seasonal summer hiring.”

The Labor Department reports that regions that see a large influx of tourists during the summer showed the steepest month-over-month declines in unemployment.

However, seasonal jobs don’t account for all of the improvement Monster.com data combined with US Bureau of Labor Statistics show a vast number of job postings in cities on both coasts (typical tourist destinations) as well as in the heartland (where tourists are less an integral part of the economy). And jobs are not just tourism based, nor are they all high-tech related. Using their job growth survey analysis, Monster has designated the following cities as the best for jobs (all kinds of them!) right now- and yes, once again, the San Francisco Bay Area made the list, and pretty high up it as well.

Top 10 metro areas for jobs:
1. Washington, DC-Arlington-Alexandria
Industries to Watch: Demand is strong in architecture/engineering, as well as in the related categories of construction/extraction and installation/repair and maintenance.
2. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont
Industries to Watch: Private-sector hiring is robust, with especially positive trends in management, IT, business/financial and architecture/ engineering, among other industries.

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