By Jackie Simmonds, NEJS Blog Editor

The longer a job seeker is unemployed the larger the radius of the search becomes.  If you are expanding that search zone where should you focus?  There are numerous choices – get closer to the kids, get away from the kids, head to the area you are thinking about retiring.  Add a little research to your search zone expansion by looking at the places that are beating the unemployment odds during this recession or are forecasted to pull out of the recession faster than the average.

To that end U.S. News and World Report has identified the places that seem to have weathered the recession better than the rest of the country.  These areas all typically have lower than average unemployment rates.

• Anchorage:  Perhaps a little far away for most of us, this young city (the median age is 33) just marked its 20th consecutive year of job growth.

• Arlington, VA:  Arlington County has a job base is heavily influenced by government but it does boast lots of corporations as well.

• Columbus, OH:  Columbus has a diverse economy supporting their lower than average job loss; health care, hospitality, manufacturing, and the high tech industry.  Columbus is also known for a strong transportation and distribution industry, which has been growing since 2001.

• Honolulu:  Besides the beautiful weather, Honolulu has only reached a sunny 7% unemployment rate.  Tourism has been hurt somewhat during this recession but look for retail, higher education, and nursing to provide jobs in the future.

• Houston:  Throughout the recession Texas has managed to avoid the high unemployment rates of other states.  Houston is the location for 27 major corporations and of course we can’t forget the impact of oil. Houston and many other cities in Texas are forecasted to continue to add jobs.

• Oklahoma City:  With energy as the big driver in the area,  Oklahoma City has one of the country’s lowest unemployment rates at only 6 percent. Recovery in this area is forecasted to happen two years earlier than the national average.  Growth in this area will be in professional and business services as well as healthcare.

• Salt Lake City:  At just 6 percent, Salt Lake City has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation.

• Shreeveport, LA:  Louisiana is projected to come out of this recession only loosing 2 percent of its jobs and to return to its prerecession numbers by 2012, putting the state in the top four for fewest jobs lost.  LA has a solid and growing film production industry, growth in hospitality employment, and a really big deposit of natural gas.

• Tallahassee, FL:  The unemployment rate in Tallahassee is below the state average. Job growth has occurred in education, health services, leisure and hospitality, and in the government sector.  And there is a good chance that housing is cheap!

• Wichita, KS:  Still very strong in aviation, Wichita has also seen growth in education, health services.

Before you pack your bags and head to a new location read the rest of the Liz Wolgemuth article at U.S. News and World Report to get a full understanding of why these areas stand out from the rest of the country.