America's best jobs in the hottest markets

The great American hiring boom is slowing down--but as labor cools with the rest of the economy, a few choice regions will stay red-hot. You just have to know where to look.

Companies like Madden-maker Electronic Arts have helped Orlando to expand its economic base.
1. ORLANDO, FL
2-year job-growth forecast: 6.8%

Metropolitan-area population: 2.0 million

Who's hiring now: Electronic Arts, Lockeed Martin, Starwood Vacation Ownership

Hottest jobs: Senior mechanical engineer ($80,400), physician's assistant ($76,000), IT project manager ($75,200), construction project manager ($71,200), electrical engineer ($64,900)

Orlando once leaned heavily on Disney World and its service-sector spinoffs to prop up its economy, but these days it's pulling in life sciences, digital media, and health-care companies with affordable (or subsidized) land and tax breaks. Electronic Arts; Hollywood animation firm House of Moves; and Burnham Institute, a top-rated cancer research center, are all expanding and adding jobs here. Despite the housing slump, such diversification will help Orlando crank out 72,600 new jobs this year and next.

Most of the hiring will still come from the region's tourism backbone. But Orlando will also post higher growth in professional-services jobs--everything from office managers to advertising account executives--than any other city on our list. The high-wage, white-collar category is projected to balloon by about 15 percent. The reason: Orlando's population is expected to expand by 150,000 by decade's end.
Sources: Conference Board, Global Insight, Moody's Economy.com, PayScale, and Radford Surveys & Consulting.

Orlando

Las Vegas

Raleigh

Charlotte

Phoenix

West Palm Beach

Tampa

Riverside

Austin

Atlanta

Salt Lake City

Jacksonville

Dallas

San Antonio

Ft. Lauderdale
Where the jobs are See our interactive map to find out where Help Wanted signs abound--and which positions are in the highest demand. (more)
The hottest salaries Here are popular job categories in which wages are growing the fastest. (more)
The hottest jobs Here are the most in-demand professionals nationwide, and the cities where they're most coveted. (more)

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.