The Nation’s Hottest Job Markets Are in This State

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A job that offers good pay, work-life balance or other sought-after perks can be hard to find. But your odds of landing one are a lot better in some cities than others.

Consider starting your next job search in California. The job-search site Indeed recently ranked several of the Golden State’s cities among the best metropolitan areas for job seekers.

For its 2018 Best Cities for Job Seekers report, the job site evaluated the 50 metro areas with the most job postings on Indeed and ranked these metros based on four questions:

  • How favorable is the local labor market to the job seeker?
  • What’s the average salary, adjusted for cost of living?
  • How high do employers score for work-life balance in Indeed’s review database?
  • How high do employers score for job security and advancement opportunities in Indeed’s review database?

Each city then received an overall score out of 100.

Half of the top 10 locales are in California:

  1. San Jose, California: Overall score of 100 out of 100
  2. San Francisco: 83.3
  3. Boston: 65.4
  4. San Diego: 59.1
  5. Los Angeles: 57.7
  6. Minneapolis: 55.4
  7. Sacramento, California: 50.6
  8. Miami: 46.5
  9. Seattle: 43.5
  10. Washington, D.C.: 42.8

A sixth California city — Riverside — also made the top 25. It took the No. 13 spot with an overall score of 38.2.

San Jose moved up from the No. 6 spot last year to No. 1 this year, thanks primarily to strong scores in the categories of job market favorability, work-life balance, and job security and advancement.

Major employers in San Jose — which is home to Silicon Valley — include tech companies like Apple and Cisco. They also include Santa Clara County and Stanford University.

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