Want a Better Job? Start Looking in These 25 Cities

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Two San Francisco Bay area cities lead Glassdoor’s latest annual list of the top 25 cities for jobs.

To come up with the list, the employment website ranked the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas based on four factors, giving each city a “job score” on a scale of 1 to 5.

The four factors on which the job scores were based are:

  • Hiring opportunity, which was determined by the ratio of active job openings to population.
  • Cost of living, which was determined by the ratio of median annual base salary to median metro home value.
  • Job satisfaction, which was based on at least 1,500 company reviews shared by local employees on Glassdoor over the past year.
  • Work-life balance, which was based on at least 1,500 work-life balance ratings shared by local employees on Glassdoor over the past year.

The top-ranked California cities of San Jose and San Francisco earned job scores of 4 and 3.8, respectively.

Glassdoor chief economist Andrew Chamberlain explains:

“This demonstrates why so many people are looking to move to the San Francisco Bay area: job satisfaction, work-life balance and hiring opportunity are unparalleled compared to anywhere else in the country.”

Bigger does not necessarily mean better, though. This year was the first in which several midsized cities made Glassdoor’s list, including:

  • Detroit
  • Cleveland
  • San Diego
  • Cincinnati
  • Hartford, Connecticut

Chamberlain explains the advantages of such cities:

“Many of the nation’s midsized cities stand out for offering some of the greatest job prospects combined with salaries that allow people to stretch their dollar further.”

  1. San Jose — job score of 4.0
  2. San Francisco — 3.8
  3. Seattle — 3.5
  4. Boston — 3.5
  5. Washington, D.C. — 3.4
  6. Austin, Texas — 3.3
  7. Salt Lake City — 3.3
  8. Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina — 3.3
  9. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota — 3.0
  10. Oklahoma City — 3.0
  11. St. Louis — 2.9
  12. Detroit — 2.9
  13. Kansas City, Missouri — 2.8
  14. Columbus, Ohio — 2.8
  15. Cleveland — 2.8
  16. Indianapolis — 2.7
  17. Baltimore — 2.7
  18. Louisville — 2.7
  19. Pittsburgh — 2.6
  20. San Antonio — 2.6
  21. San Diego — 2.6
  22. Chicago — 2.6
  23. Cincinnati — 2.6
  24. Atlanta — 2.6
  25. Hartford, Connecticut — 2.6

For more detailed information about each city’s score, visit Glassdoor’s website.

What “job score” would you give your city? Let us know in the comment section below or over on our Facebook page.

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