ROCKFORD — The Rockford region made one of the biggest one-year gains in an annual ranking of the best-performing regional economies.

The Milken Institute, which publishes an annual index of Best-Performing Cities, released its report this week assessing and ranking how successful the country's metropolitan statistical areas are at creating jobs and stimulating economic growth. Metro areas are a region that consists of a city and surrounding communities that are linked by social and economic factors. For Rockford, that consists of Winnebago and Boone counties.

In the report, researchers analyzed economic data such as job growth, wages and technology output across more than 400 metropolitan areas, of which the top 200 are ranked.

The Rockford region ranked 144, up 40 spots from its ranking two years ago.

The region's one-year job growth from 2017-2018 was a key reason for the jump, said Michael Lin, an institute associate director and researcher.

"The growth rate during this period was 2.3%, which placed the metro at No. 52 (No. 197 in the previous year) among 200 large metros in the one-year job growth indicator," he said. "During the 2017 to 2018 period, the metro also had a strong performance in our high-tech GDP growth indicator (ranked No. 33). The presence of UTC Aerospace Systems had a major contribution in this regard."

Lin also noted the region's health care and logistics sectors have been expanding. He noted expansion projects at each of Rockford's three hospitals, growth at the Chicago Rockford International Airport, and the relatively lower business costs all helped boost the logistics industry.

"Several logistics companies including AAR Corp., Pinnacle Logistics and UPS have created new job opportunities in the metro. The recent expansion of Amazon in Rockford also illustrates this point," he said.

Topping the list of Best Performing Cities is the San Francisco-Redwood City region.

The Milken Institute Center for Regional Economics, based in Santa Monica, California, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit economic think tank. The institute's Best-Performing Cities series has tracked the economic performance of U.S. metros for two decades using job, wage and salary, and high-tech gross domestic product indicators.

Kevin Klowden, the institute's executive director, said the metros are ranked on their performance and the ranking is "solely an outcomes-based index." Their report does not incorporate cost-of-living components, and quality-of-life conditions, such as commute times or crime rates.

"Crime tends to be more of a trailing indicator to the jobs numbers and wage numbers that we look at," Klowden said. "So, if you look at a city that has underperformed for a few years, crime numbers consistently jump out."

Mayor Tom McNamara said he is pleased that the economic vitality of Rockford and the surrounding area is catching the attention of researchers outside of the Midwest.

"There’s a lot of positive momentum in our region in many areas, so I’m not surprised to see the Rockford MSA making such strong gains," he said. "We’re seeing growth in our health care and logistics sectors and our advanced manufacturing industries continue to be the backbone of our local economy."

The mayor said his administration is continuing to focus on workforce development as many companies continue to be challenged to find skilled labors. To address the shortage, McNamara said the city is partnering with a number of organizations to increase the city's college- or career-ready population.

"We’re not where we need to be," he said, "but I’m pleased with the continued progress and I’m glad others are noticing.”

Pam Fettes, executive director of Growth Dimensions Economic Development in Boone County, noted the index the Milken Institute used in its reporting measures growth in jobs, wages, salaries, and technology output over five years for jobs and technology output, and five years for wages and salaries to adjust for extreme variations in business cycles.

In addition, she said, the rankings include a year's (August 2018-August 2019) worth of job growth to capture recent momentum among metropolitan economies.

"The automotive industry was a significant contribution to the increase in jobs during this period of time," Fettes said. "During this same period of time, we had an increase in jobs through food manufacturing and distribution/logistics.

"Although there was a loss of a shift and jobs at the FCA (Belvidere Assembly Plant) in 2019, the number of jobs in all manufacturing sectors shows a surplus in Boone County."

Klowden said the key to a sustained healthy economy is a community with a diversity of jobs. Such communities he said are more resilient when economic downturns occur.

Chris Green: 815-987-1241; cgreen@rrstar.com; @chrisfgreen