Hospitals across the country have fueled job creation and helped slash unemployment rates significantly in the past decade.
The list below — created by STAT using data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics — ranks the top 10 cities, out of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas, that hired the most hospital employees from July 2007 to July 2017. The ranking is based on percentage gains in the number of hospital employees.
Here are the 10 metropolitan areas that added the most hospital jobs in the last ten years, as measured by their percentage increase in that timeframe.
1. New Orleans (78 percent)
2. Boise, Idaho (72 percent)
3. Austin, Texas (51 percent)
4. Columbus, Ohio (51 percent)
5. Bakersfield, Calif. (49 percent)
6. Grand Rapids, Mich. (47 percent)
7. Las Vegas (44 percent)
8. Sarasota, Fla.; North Port, Fla.; Bradenton, Fla. (42 percent)
9. San Jose, Calif. (37 percent)
10. Denver (37 percent)