Forbes
Top Cities for Finding Employment in 2016
By: Kathryn Dill
Those on the hunt for employment this spring will find plenty of opportunities in cities like San Francisco and Washington, D.C., but may want to focus their hunt on smaller cities where lower wages are balanced by far lower living costs, according to a report released yesterday by job search and salary comparison side Glassdoor.
To determine which cities are offering the greatest combination of opportunities right now, job search and salary comparison site Glassdoor measured how easy it is to get a job, the cost of living in a particular city, and how generally satisfied employees in that city are with their work and work-life balance.
These factors were considered using median pay, median home value, job satisfaction and work-life balance ratings, and number of current job openings on Glassdoor as metrics. (Forbes contributor Joel Kotkin also takes an annual look at the best cities for jobs, using job creation and growth as metrics and breaking the list down by metropolitan statistical area size.)
At the top of the list is San Jose, California. Companies in San Jose have more than 61,000 job openings currently posted on Glassdoor. Though this is fewer than some other cities, and median home value is high at $965,000, a high median base salary–$112,000–puts San Jose at the top of the list.
San Francisco, California, comes in second. In fact, west coast cities dominate the top of this list, with Seattle, Washington coming in third.
Further down, cities on the east coast and further inland begin to make appearances. Boston takes fourth place with upwards of 121,000 job openings listed on Glassdoor while Washington, D.C. has more than 160,000 offerings, currently, and a median base salary of $70,000.
Several Midwestern cities make the cut, offering among the lowest median housing prices on the list. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, comes in ninth, with more than 65,000 job openings, a median base salary of $65,000, and a median home value of $219,400 (compared to San Francisco’s $806,600.)
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, rounds out the top 10 with a median base salary of $50,000 and a median home value of $132,500. Further down the list, St. Louis, Missouri; Detroit, Michigan; Kansas City, Missouri; Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio; and Indianapolis, Indiana, all make the cut.
