Sep. 11--Savannah has jumped from 34th to 24th in an annual study that ranks U.S. metropolitan areas -- large and small -- according to their ability to create and sustain jobs.

It marks the first time Savannah has cracked the top 25 in the just-released 2008 Milken Institute/Greenstreet Partners' "Best Performing Cities Index."

The index divides 324 metropolitan areas into the 200 largest and the 124 smallest markets, looking at short-term and long-term measurements of employment and salary growth.

Savannah's upward move in the largest cities category -- it was ranked 78th in 2006 -- is related in large part to two major players, said Armen Bedroussian, a research economist at Milken and one of the authors of the study.

"The weak dollar has boosted exports and global trade, allowing the already strong Port of Savannah to grow even more, creating some 600 new jobs in the area between 2006 and 2007," Bedroussian said. "The port is definitely your main asset."

Not far behind is Savannah-based Gulfstream Aerospace, which added another 500 new jobs in the same time frame, according to the study.

"What is especially significant about Gulfstream is that these were primarily high-tech, high-paying jobs," Bedroussian said Wednesday. "You also have a strong military presence at Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield, which helps broaden Savannah's economic base.

"And the more diverse a metro area (is), the better it's equipped to mitigate downside risks and weather a slow economy."

Bill Hubbard, president of the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce, called Savannah's ranking "amazing, when you consider the size of our metropolitan statistical area."

Of the 23 cities ahead of Savannah in the rankings, only three come close to us in population size -- the rest are much larger, Hubbard said.

"For us to be in those ranks, being a much smaller community says tremendous things about where we were and where we're going," he said.

While Savannah's star continues to rise, the Hinesville-Fort Stewart area, which climbed 16 spots from 20th to fourth in last year's small-metro list, was not listed this year -- a victim, it turns out, of a tightened federal budget.

This year's list of small metros contains 124 cities, compared to 174 last year, Bedroussian said, because the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics collected data on fewer small metro areas in the wake of funding cuts.

"So, it's not that Hinesville is doing better or worse than last year," he said. "It's simply that we have no data to compare this year."

Of the small cities that made the cut, Warner Robins remained a Georgia standout, moving from 10th place in 2007 to sixth this year.

"Robins Air Force Base is still a dominant force in the local economy, generating $4.2 billion in economic impacts in central Georgia each year," the study said.

Elsewhere in the state, the Atlanta-Sandy-Springs-Marietta MSA ranked 59th in the large-metro category, followed by Augusta-Richmond County at 121st and Columbus at 166th.

Georgia's top five small metros were Warner Robins, Gainesville (20th), Athens-Clarke County (37th), Valdosta (53rd) and Albany (98th).

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