Des Moines was second only to Washington, DC in the latest Forbes magazine report on the best cities for high-paying jobs.

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Relatively high household incomes and a low unemployment rate mean this capital city five-and-a-half hours west of Chicago is primed to add good jobs that newcomers can fill. Moody’s Analytics, which compiled all the projections for this survey, estimates Des Moines-area employment will increase by 8.6% or 36,000 jobs to 461,000 by the end of 2016. Unemployment topped out at 6% in the depths of the recession and stands a little below that now, compared with 8.3% nationwide. […]

To construct our list, we ranked the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas by a variety of statistics including unemployment rate, household income and projected job growth. We screened out cities that were merely rebounding from the recession, like Las Vegas, which Moody’s expects will generate an impressive-sounding 124,000 jobs through 2016. […]

It was the combination of raw job growth, low unemployment and high wages that advanced Des Moines to second place. […]

Unlike many Midwestern cities, Des Moines has also managed to maintain its biggest downtown employers including Principal Financial Group, Wells Fargo and Better Homes & Gardens publisher Meredith Publishing. Downtown employment has grown from 45,000 in 1980 to 75,000 today, [city economic development coordinator Andrea] Howard said.

The Des Moines metro area has done well in previous Forbes rankings, coming out as the fourth best “bang for the buck” area in 2009, the best place to raise a family in 2010, and the best place for business and careers, also in 2010.

Forbes has included the Omaha/Council Bluffs area on several of its previous “best place” lists. Today’s report ranks Omaha the seventh-best city in the U.S. for jobs.

The Cedar Rapids metro area wasn’t mentioned in today’s report but has been included on similar lists compiled by Forbes and others during the past few years.