Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood MSA 2nd Best Place for Jobs

A recent survery by Manpower, Inc ranked the Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood MSA as having the 2nd strongest outlook for hiring.  Forbes magazine also ran an article about this.  Read the Forbes Article

The military fuels the local economy in the Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood area of Texas. Some 48,000 soldiers are stationed in Fort Hood. It's the military base from which the most soldiers in the world are deployed, and it has a tremendous economic impact, generating $10.9 billion in annual revenue to the state and $7 billion to the Fort Hood region alone.

"Fort Hood affects almost all of our business in some form or fashion," says John Crutchfield, president of the Greater Killeen Chamber of Commerce. The area is home to no fewer than 240 defense contractors, from mom-and-pop janitorial services to Northrop Grumman ( NOC - news - people ) and Lockheed Martin ( LMT - news - people ). The military is building a new medical center that, when completed, will hire an additional 1,500 to 2,000. "Large contractors can access more government business if they partner with a small contractor," Crutchfield says. "Most of the small contractors are local people."