2-year job-growth forecast: 5.0%
Newcomers are still moving here in droves: 34,000 in 2006 alone. Good thing the largest employers have plenty of work for them. A resurgent Boeing added about 5,000 folks to its Washington payrolls last year. Microsoft is expanding its Redmond campus and will continue a hiring spurt that brought in 7,000 new employees in 2006.