Fort Bend County Makes Forbes List

New jobs and rising incomes put Fort Bend County at the top of a Forbes list of "Best Places to Get Ahead in 2010." (www.forbes.com)

Forbes looked at counties where the number of jobs had grown the most between the second quarter of 2007 and the second quarter of 2009. It also factored in the counties with the highest income growth. Fort Bend county income levels grew 10 percent between 2007 and 2008, including the addition of 5,913 new jobs since the second quarter of 2007. The county's median income was $84,782 in 2008, up from $77,082 in 2007.

Like the rest of Texas, Fort Bend gets a healthy chunk of its revenue from the energy sector, but it also benefits from a diversity of industries - including education and hospitality - that has fueled several decades of rapid population growth. Several companies on Forbes' 400 Best Big Companies list are headquartered there, including Texas Instruments, Baker Hughes and Thermo Fisher

Forbes limited its search to counties where the median household income was $75,000 per year or higher. Here are the rest of Forbes' picks:

Delaware County, Ohio
Kendall County, Ill.
Williamson County, Tenn.
Arlington County, Va.
Will County, Ill.
Douglas County, Colo.
Alexandria City, Va.
Loudoun County, Va.
Hanover County, Va.
Carver County, Minn.