Looking to relocate to a new town with plenty of work? Gallup's got a tip sheet for you.

A recent Gallup poll identified the major U.S. cities that are creating the most jobs. Gallup has created a jobs creation index that it uses to rank metro areas by who's hot and who's not. Some of the Top 10 may surprise you.

The leaders are Salt Lake City and Austin — both seen as strong economic engines in recent years. But would Detroit have sprung to mind when you started your job search? Or Portland, Oregon, where the locals are constantly griping about lack of job opportunities?

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To break the tension, here the Top 10 metro areas for jobs creation. Their indices vary only slightly from No. 1 to No. 10:

  • Salt Lake City

  • Austin

  • Bay Area

  • Houston

  • Orlando

  • Silicon Valley

  • Louisville, Kentucky

  • Detroit

  • Raleigh, North Carolina

  • Portland, Oregon

So where do you want to avoid, unless you enjoy a real challenge and have savings to live off of while job hunting? New York/East Jersey ranked right at the bottom. Here are the lowest jobs creation metro areas, according to Gallup. Again, just a few points separated Riverside from New York.

  • Riverside-San Bernardino, California

  • Pittsburgh

  • LA Basin

  • Memphis

  • Providence, Rhode Island

  • Las Vegas

  • Virginia Beach-Norfolk, Virginia

  • Hartford, Connecticut

  • San Diego

  • New York/Newark, New Jersey

Gallup said Houston, Salt Lake City and Orlando have been in the Top 10 for several years, while New York and San Diego have been at the tail end of the rankings during that time.

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Dan Cook

Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.