(FORTUNE Magazine) – Rankings on access to quality labor and on pro-business attitude come from Moran Stahl & Boyer's survey of executives in America's 50 largest metropolitan areas. A rank of 1 is best, and 50 the worst; duplicate rankings reflect ties. We and MS&B conducted extensive interviews and visits. The average U.S. manufacturing salary is $26,700; for clerical jobs it is $18,600. The average lease rate in the surveyed cities is $21.25 per square foot.

1 ATLANTA The bad news: For a change, Atlanta is actually experiencing ill effects from the national economy, the worst blow having come with the shutdown of Eastern Airlines, a provider of 10,000 jobs. The good news: The slowdown makes the city more of a value than ever for business. Class A office space is abundant, and a bunch more is about to hit the market. The price of traditional luxury houses is soft; UPS says housing is roughly half what it costs in Connecticut. Air access is excellent but not cheap. Atlanta is a natural choice for reaching regional markets, and all those young workers who have flocked to the Southern boomtown still need jobs to make BMW payments. Suburban schools are fine, but many execs in the city choose private education for their kids. Crime is high. Golf is great. Atlanta has more trees than any other major city.

2 DALLAS FORT/WORTH If you can't find a good deal on office space in Dallas/Fort Worth, you shouldn't be allowed to go to the grocery store alone. Things are stabilizing after the real estate and banking crash of the Eighties, but the city has a ton of office space and housing left on its plate. Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. As with Atlanta, crime and schools are rough in the city, okay in the suburbs. Also like Atlanta, Dallas/Ft. Worth offers terrific air access and a natural hub for regional markets. No personal income taxes steal bites from the pie. Texans score high for ''pro-bidness'' attitude and have lately added humility to the mix. As Dallas/Ft. Worth recovers, it is building a diversified service economy tied more to the nation's than to the state's energy cycle, and it is well situated for Mexican-American commerce should North American trade barriers fall.

3 PITTSBURGH The Lazarus of American cities, Pittsburgh has everything going for it but an up-to-date image. Low crime, high-quality public education, and a skilled work force add up to one of the very best values for business -- especially among older cities outside the Sunbelt. Carnegie Mellon University helps attract businesses in the biotech industry. A good work ethic and a central location are especially appealing to light manufacturers such as Sony, which chose Pittsburgh as the site for its North American picture tube factory. Housing is a bargain, air is clean, and commutes are short. Cultural institutions stay healthy with heavy involvement from the old-line corporate community. Something that wouldn't happen in Atlanta: When a new building replaced Forbes Field, the outfield wall and home plate were preserved.

4 KANSAS CITY Of all the top ten cities, Kansas City is the most beloved by its own resident executives, who rate it high in virtually every category: tax structure, labor costs, quality of labor, housing costs. Its central location appeals to many, but air connections could be better. Hallmark, one of the biggest games in town, and Marion Merrell Dow pharmaceuticals, another heavy hitter, are both strongly committed to civic involvement. Kansas City has more of a story to tell than most when it comes to the plight of its inner-city schools; it is spending $600 million to rebuild the whole system, bringing computers and exotic curricula to the ghetto. A black mayor, elected by a white majority, has launched a new era of race relations. The city deserves its reputation for great food, especially steaks and barbecue.

5 NASHVILLE Location. Location. Location. Nashville's got it, and it is beginning to pay off. On the important criterion of proximity to markets, Nashville ranked No. 1 in the top ten. It's convenient to the South, the Midwest, and much of the | Eastern seaboard. American Airlines operates a growing hub out of the city, giving it the potential to challenge Atlanta and Dallas for ease of transportation. The quality of the work force ranks high, which was instrumental in decisions by Nissan and GM's Saturn division to locate auto plants in the vicinity. Those workers command high pay. Nashville would like to build on its sizable health care industry and nurture a budding telecommunications sector. City business promoters have only recently decided to play up, rather than distance themselves from, its predominant image worldwide: Music City USA.

6 SALT LAKE CITY Everything is still clean, high quality, safe, and inexpensive in Salt Lake City, an unmistakable location of great value with a bonus for skiers -- city buses go to several resorts. Taxes are moderate, literacy is extraordinarily high, crime is low, and one of America's most qualified work forces takes home wages below the national average. Nor is the place as isolated as everyone seems to think; it is within 850 miles of Phoenix, Denver, Seattle, and all major California cities, and a Delta hub gives the city more flights than most cities its size. Highways are excellent and housing costs attractive. Downsides? Utah boasts only three FORTUNE 500 headquarters, so you have to catch other execs visiting on holiday. And some residents report that Salt Lake's Mormon influence can be a bit much for the secular community.

7 CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA What this upstart North Carolina city lacks in polish it makes up for in one all-important intangible: pro-business attitude, a category in which it ranks first, even ahead of Atlanta. Like Atlanta and Dallas, Charlotte suffers from high crime and public education woes. But thanks largely to the efforts of NCNB's acquisitive CEO, Hugh McColl, the city is gaining a reputation as a financial center that is eclipsing Atlanta's. Low manufacturing wages -- a reflection of the area's furniture- and textile-making past -- are attractive to industry. The city stresses its quality of life, but a major threat to that quality looms: traffic. For some reason this stock-car-racing town hasn't built an adequate highway system. Like some other smaller cities, Charlotte has a terrific back-office reputation, which helps attract such newcomers as Hearst Magazines' accounting operations.

8 ORLANDO, FLORIDA Relatively inexpensive and smack in the center of one of the country's fastest-growing markets, Orlando is Florida's boomtown answer to Atlanta and Dallas. Like the Sunbelt's big two, Orlando has convenient air service, and the reason is obvious: Disney World is America's No. 1 tourist destination. After pausing for the recession, this tourism juggernaut is expected to keep right on exploding. Wages are below the U.S. average, and, as in all of Florida, there's no personal income tax. Success has its price: Orlando ranks worst in the top ten for traffic problems. It also ranks low for cultural activities and presence of quality universities, but the Florida lifestyle gets big points. The city is a short drive from the beach and is surrounded by natural lakes and citrus groves, now transforming into residential communities.

9 AUSTIN, TEXAS The smallest and least expensive of the top ten cities, Austin is a bit isolated and in a category of its own. Its casual Hill Country lifestyle is legendary. While lacking some elements of traditional business locations -- such as proximity to markets -- it has become something of an alternative Silicon Valley. Many major names -- IBM, Motorola, Apple, Advanced Micro Devices, Texas Instruments -- are represented there, as are hundreds of entrepreneurial high-tech companies nurtured by the University of Texas's Austin Technology Incubator. MCC and Sematech, two high-tech consortia, also call Austin home. In addition to Lake Travis, country music, and barbecue, Austin (like the rest of Texas) demands no personal income tax. A major drawback: The city lacks good nonstop airline service to many other key cities.

10 PHOENIX Phoenix offers a combination of particularly high-quality labor at near- average costs; unionization is notably low. It boasts good schools and a large community college system to train workers. As in Atlanta and Dallas, office space is plentiful and inexpensive in the wake of Eighties overbuilding. The city is strategically located near the dense and lucrative Southern California market, but it is beginning to suffer from some of the same urban problems: traffic, air pollution, urban sprawl. New freeway construction has eased traffic, but water shortages could eventually stunt growth. When problems come up, Phoenicians like to talk about the weather: On average the sun shines 85% of daylight hours, and the average annual temperature is 72 degrees F., which explains the proliferation of golf and other resorts.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: SOURCES: Pop., National Planning Data Corp.; lease rates in central business districts, Comparative Statistics of Industrial and Office Real Estate Markets; tax rates, Commerce Clearing House; wages for manufacturing, County Business Patterns; wages for clerical, BLS; Moran Stahl & Boyer. CAPTION: NO CAPTION