Forbes magazine has ranked Knoxville the sixth best mid-sized city for jobs.
Forbes ranks 398 U.S. metro areas. Knoxville was 9th on last year's list. The Knoxville Chamber says it rose in the ranking primarily because of a 3.1 percent growth in year-over-year jobs.
"The Knoxville region is an exciting, innovative place to do business," said Mike Edwards, president & CEO of the Knoxville Chamber. "The research and science assets of Knoxville and Oak Ridge make this area a leader in energy and technology, two of the key factors of job growth according to Forbes."
Forbes noted that the 2011 list of Best Cities for Jobs was dominated by locations that depended heavily on government employers.
In 2012, "Instead of government, the big drivers of growth now appear to be three basic sectors: energy, technology and, most welcome of all, manufacturing."
According to the Chamber, the Knoxville region saw many companies announcing the addition of new jobs over the last year: this includes Provision's Center for Proton Therapy (100 jobs), Republic Plastics (100 jobs), Scripps Networks Interactive (100 jobs), EdFinancial (150 jobs), Goodson Brothers Coffee Company (20 jobs), G.C. Services (65 jobs), Holston Gases (30 jobs), TeamHealth (160 jobs), Virginia College (120 jobs), Legends Fitness (55 jobs), Denso Manufacturing (75), and Comcast (55 jobs).