A new study ranks Fresno among the top US cities with the strongest economic recoveries from Covid-19.

In fact, Fresno comes in at No. 2 on the list of 49 of the largest American cities, with its economy bolstered by increased consumer spending and uptick in job postings.

The study by consumer financial technology company SmartAsset examines other metrics including small business openings, revenue and unemployment. With the exception of March unemployment, the metrics track changes from April 30 of this year to January 2020.

“Fresno, California has excelled in our new job postings metric, which is up 37.2% from pre-pandemic levels and second only to Tampa, Florida (at 19.8%). While the city’s small business revenue is down 20.2% from pre-pandemic levels, it ranks sixth for this metric in our study. However, the city falls behind with a 7.4% unemployment rate, ranking 37th in our study,” according to SmartAsset.

The number of small business openings in Fresno fell by 31.4% compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to the study.

Another finding of the study is that mid-size American cities are performing better. Of the top 10 cities, only one (Jacksonville, Florida) is in the top 20 nationally for population.

“The rest are scattered throughout the top 50, but none of the larger cities in the country – like New York, New York; Los Angeles, California or Chicago, Illinois – are rebounding as quickly,” according to SmartAsset. “Out of the biggest cities by population, the highest-ranked is Dallas, Texas, which places 19th in our study.”

No. 1 on the list is Salt Lake City, scoring 100 on the index, compared to Fresno’s 93.3 index score. Rounding out the top five is No. 3 Colorado Springs, Colorado (92.29); No. 4 Memphis, Tennessee (90.12) and No. 5 Minneapolis, Minnesota (87.31).

The next highest-scoring California cities were No. 14 Bakersfield (74.33) followed by Sacramento at No. 15 (73.1).