The best U.S. cities to find a job in 2020
Midsize U.S. cities are among the best places to find a job this year, according to a new report from careers website Glassdoor.
The site analyzed the unemployment rate, job growth, cost of living and other factors in cities across the nation. The top-ranked metropolis: Raleigh, North Carolina, where more than 52,000 job openings were listed on Glassdoor in January.
"It is part of the Research Triangle, which provides a healthy number of job openings in education and feeds the local talent supply with university graduates," said Amanda Stansell, a senior economic research analyst with Glassdoor. "Education, health care and tech are some of the industries contributing to the over 52,000 open jobs in Raleigh."
A robust local technology industry driven by companies including IBM, Lenovo and Verizon is driving growth in the Raleigh area, according to industry analysts. Tech companies are also helping boost job-creation in other modest-sized metro areas, according to Glassdoor.
"Many of these midsized cities like Pittsburgh and Austin are growing tech hubs with a healthy number of open jobs and much more affordable housing prices compared to bigger tech hubs like New York City and San Francisco," Stansell said.
Apple announced last year that it would build a $1 billion site in Austin, Texas, that will open in 2022 and eventually employ some 15,000 workers. (Austin ranked No. 24 in this year's Glassdoor ranking.) The company is also looking to widen its footprint in Pittsburgh and Seattle.
Meanwhile, Amazon is building a new facility in Nashville, Tennessee, where the area's 2.6% unemployment rate is a full percentage point below the national average. The company said it will create 5,000 jobs in Nashville.
Ohio is another good state to find work these days, Stansell said, noting that Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus are affordable cities that boast tens of thousands of job openings each. By contrast, bigger cities including Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco did poorly in the rankings because of soaring housing prices and overall high costs of living.
Here are Glassdoor's top 10 cities for job seekers:
1. Raleigh
2. Pittsburgh
3. Indianapolis
4. Memphis
5. Cleveland
6. St. Louis
7. Hartford
8. Birmingham
9. Cincinnati
10. Detroit