Houston may not be big on that hip, trendy stuff like

, but we are kicking ass in a different category -- job growth.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has just released its June 2008 report on job growth in the country's 12 largest metropolitan areas.

Houston leads the way.

The Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown area (and who wouldn't want to be lumped in with Baytown?) saw a 2.1 percent hike in employment from June 2007, compared to negative 0.1 percent nationwide.

Dallas was a close second with a 2.0 percent increase, but the drop-off was steep after that: Boston and Washington with 0.8 percent and Atlanta with 0.7 percent.

San Francisco, Miami, LA and Detroit were all in negative territory.

But they probably recycle more than we do.

-- Richard Connelly