Despite not even being among the 10 most populated areas in the country, metropolitan Phoenix led the nation in absolute job gains from December 2004 to December 2005.

The seasonally unadjusted figures from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics confirm the Valley's status as a growth market not only for new residents but for new jobs as well.

The region added 83,200 jobs to its economy over the year, topping the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area's 81,600 jobs.

Somewhat remarkably, the Census Bureau reported last year that metropolitan Phoenix was only the 14th most populous metropolitan area in 2003, while metropolitan D.C. was the 7th-largest region.

That means the Phoenix region created more new jobs than even such metropolitan goliaths as Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.

"We've actually done incredibly well since the end of the last recession," said Tracy Clark, an economist at Arizona State University. "In percentage terms, we tend to be behind only Las Vegas, but they have a much smaller base."