Metropolitan-area population: 6.0 million
Who's hiring now: American Airlines, Comerica, ExxonMobil, Fluor, Gamestop, Southwest Airlines, Texas Instruments
Hottest jobs Senior software developer ($88,500), operations director ($84,800), IT project manager ($84,500), regional sales manager ($84,300), financial controller ($83,200)
Generally, the biggest cities don't see as much growth as their smaller cousins, but Dallas, a haven for both blue- and white-collar job seekers, continues to expand at a frenetic pace. "Part of this is rebuilding some of what we lost during the downturn," says Lyssa Jenkens, chief economist at the Greater Dallas Chamber. Affordable land and homes are luring companies like Gamestop to expand here, and others like Comerica to relocate. Meanwhile, oil-industry giant ExxonMobil, still enjoying the most profitable run in its history, also helps keep the Dallas job engine humming.
Sources: Conference Board, Global Insight, Moody's Economy.com, PayScale, and Radford Surveys & Consulting.
