Richard Florida is currently running a four-part CityLab series on the economic performance of America's cities. What makes this study somewhat unique is that it looks at cities proper, rather than at their larger metro areas. In some cases there may not be that much of a difference. But in other cases, the performance of the city proper could be very different from that of the broader area.
Here are the fastest and slowest growing cities from 2012 to 2017:
Here are the fastest and slowing growing job markets:
And here is the growth in share of adults with a graduate degree:
It's interesting to see Seattle at the top of the population growth list. It is not a sprawling sunbelt city. It is an expensive tech hub. And it is also interesting to see Miami's strong employment and education growth. Years ago, Paul Graham wrote an essay arguing that tech hubs have two prerequisites: capital and nerds. He went on to argue that Miami has lots of the former, but not much of the latter. Maybe that's changing.