Washington, D.C., is the top city for jobs, according toresearch by Adecco Staffing U.S., which examines local unemploymentrate, job opportunities over the past six months, and an overallassessment of the economy in each market.

The Washington, D.C., metro area has an unemployment rate of 5.5percent, and there are job opportunities in areas besides thegovernment, the research finds. The top industries hiring are thepharmaceutical, technology and nonprofit sectors while the jobsmost in demand are within marketing, executive administration, andaccounting and finance.

The research also places Austin, Texas, which has a 6 percentunemployment rate, on its list of top cities for jobs, especiallyamong the technology and manufacturing sectors. Other quicklygrowing industries in Austin include leisure and hospitality,education and health services, professional and business services,and financial activities while the most in-demand skills arecustomer service, call center, pharmaceutical customer support,assembly and warehouse.

With its expanding economies and unemployment rate of 5.9percent, Ithaca, N.Y., is on the list, as well. As hometo Cornell University, most job opportunities in Ithacainclude education, manufacturing, technology and tourism. The mostin-demand jobs are engineers, quality control and quality assuranceprofessionals, construction managers, technical writers andtechnicians.

The top cities on this list include:

1. Washington, D.C. metro area
2. Austin
3. Ithaca
4. Boston
5. Portland, Maine
6. Dallas
7. Nashville, Tenn.
8. Columbus, Ohio
9. Baltimore
10. Pittsburgh

"These cities represent places with some of the best jobopportunities in the country right now," says Janette Marx,senior vice president of Adecco Staffing U.S. "The variety ofindustries hiring and skills in demand show that there are plentyof reasons to be optimistic about the job climate right now — andit's something we hope will only get better."