Staff Report
Published Jan. 22, 2013

The Milken Institute ranked the Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville metro area ninth in its list of Best Performing Cities 2012.

The Lowcountry jumped two spots from last year’s ranking and finished in the top 20 for five-year job growth, one-year job growth and high-tech GDP growth.

The nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank cited the region’s expansion in manufacturing and its benefit to the aerospace and automotive industries, but it also noted the military’s presence could be a liability with potential defense cuts.

High-tech industry output grew nearly 30 percentage points faster than the national average for the five years ending in 2011, ranking it fourth best in the country for high-tech growth. Milken also pointed to the Boeing Co., Daimler and Morgan Olson as positives for the Lowcountry economy.