Albany is one of a few cities nationwide that's managed to show strong job growth without also increasing income inequality, according to new findings from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

New York Fed President William Dudley, in a presentation Thursday morning, called the Capital Region a "bright spot" among upstate cities, with job growth outpacing much of the rest of upstate.

Yet, income inequality, as measured by something called the 90-10 ratio, remains fairly modest, with salary gains spread fairly evenly across all income percentiles, according to Fed data.

"Seattle, Boston, Portland (Oregon), even Albany, ... are doing quite well" economically, without seeing rising inequality, said Jason Bram, a Fed economist.

The Fed measured inequality by dividing the income earned by people in the 90th percentile of the wage distribution by that earned by those in the 10th percentile. Albany currently has a 4.7 ratio, which means that those in the 90th percentile earn 4.7 times as much as those in the 10th percentile.

Fairfield County, Conn., has the highest income inequality in the nation, with a ratio of 8.7.

San Francisco and New York City also have high levels of income inequality, said Jason Abel, another Fed economist. New York City has a 7.0 ratio.

Typically, income inequality grows as demand for highly skilled workers outpaces supply, pushing wages at the top end higher. Another factor, agglomeration economies, where a cluster of firms in a given industry tend to cluster, can also boost the industry's productivity and attract and reward workers who migrate there.

Meanwhile, globalization has reduced demand for low-skilled workers.

Factors offsetting income inequality include a concentration of jobs that support middle-range incomes. In Albany's case, said Dudley, that includes government jobs and those in its relatively healthy manufacturing sector, including nanotechnology.

Lesser impacts come from private-sector unions that also support wages in the middle of the income distribution.

In general, the Fed found, large metropolitan areas tend to be more unequal than smaller ones.