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Top 10 metros for job growth

Some metropolitan areas have a booming jobs market, thanks to energy, manufacturing, or sometimes just the right mix of highly diversified industries. Here's a look at the 10 metros that have seen the largest percentage increase in jobs over the past 12 months:

9. Bismarck, N.D.: +5.2 percent

Lauren Donovan/The Bismarck Tribune/AP/File
In this July 2012 file photo, Cheri Greger holds a tray of the fresh doughnuts enjoyed by cafe customers in the recently reopened Leipziger Hof in New Leipzig, N.D. The Bismarck metro area is thriving as a result of the energy boom in the western part of the state.

In 1873, the community of Edwinton in the Dakota Territory was the railroad terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad, which was having trouble attracting investors. So Edwinton was renamed Bismarck in honor of Germany's first chancellor, in the hopes that he would chip in some money for development. He didn't. But the name stuck – and 140 years later, the area is booming in a way that few people could have imagined 30 years ago.

The reason: The western part of North Dakota has experienced an oil boom, which in March pushed the state past Alaska as the No. 2 oil-producing state in the US after Texas. By the end of September 2012, North Dakota had produced more oil for the year than in all of 2011. That boom has spread to the state's capital on the eastern edge of the state, where jobs are going begging. At 2.2 percent, Bismarck has the lowest unemployment rate of any metropolitan area in the nation and is No. 9 in terms of annual growth in the number of jobs.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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