Augusta, Georgia, takes the top spot on LinkedIn's list of Cities on the Rise, a data-backed ranking of the fastest-growing U.S. metros for jobs and talent. The list measures year-over-year growth in professional migration, hiring and job postings to surface the cities outside larger hubs where momentum is growing. From (No. 1) Augusta's expanding cybersecurity and defense corridor to (No. 12) Albany, New York's dominance in semiconductor research and development, the ranking uncovers emerging areas of opportunity and the local trends behind their growth.
The 2026 "Cities on the Rise" ranking by LinkedIn has just dropped, and what jumps out to me from this report is that "a great place to live and work" isn't just how it scores on its own, but how it relates to other options:
> What seems to tie these cities together is a combination of logistics/distribution hubs, semiconductor and advanced manufacturing investment, and healthcare expansion at a lower cost than the biggest metros.
> Cities like Augusta, Sarasota, Harrisburg, Richmond, Reno aren't trying to be another NYC or SF Bay Area. Instead, they're offering comparable or better job opportunities at a fraction of the cost in metros small enough to still feel navigable. If a paycheck can stretch into a mortgage where homes are more affordable + there's a growing employer base, that gives people a reason to plant roots instead of just passing through onto their next opportunity.
> Where I live in coastal Long Beach, CA about 20 miles from downtown Los Angeles, the growth story isn't so much greenfield expansion as infill (and we've seen a lot of it lately, especially in urban cores).
> With the passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (and which I'll be writing about in the August issue of Builder and Developer magazine), will the city be to able encourage developers to build more "missing middle" housing options vs. the higher-priced apartments which add to supply but mostly generate complaints from priced-out locals?