Bismarck is one of only 16 of 384 metro areas showing job gains in the past year, according to new Adversity Index data for February from Moody's Economy.com and msnbc.com.
In a list of the 16 areas (only 4 percent of the total) showing job gains in the three-month period ending February 2010 compared with the same period a year earlier Bismarck ranked number five of sixteen by annualized growth in jobs.
You can follow the fortune of each metro area in the nation on this Adversity Index Interactive Map, which gives details for each metro area and state for the past 15 years.
The Adversity Index was created by msnbc.com and Moody's Economy.com to track the economic fortunes of states and metro areas. Each month, the Adversity Index uses government data on employment, industrial production, housing starts and home prices to label each area as expanding, at risk of recession, in recession or recovering.