Wallet Hub is out with its annual list of the best places to find a job. If you’re in IT, you’ve got your pick. Not surprising, tech hubs rank high in the scoring. Out of the top 10 places with the best job prospects, half are in or around tech centers like Silicon Valley.
Most of these also made the top 10 cut when factors like family incomes, housing costs, commute times and recreation are included.
For anyone considering a geographic change, but uncertain about where, the list can be a useful starting place. It doesn’t tell you exactly why for example, Pittsburgh gets higher marks for its socio-economic climate than does Virginia Beach or Austin. The methodology does explain the factors and weight that go into the scoring, though it would seem being far south of the snow belt and on the ocean or in the trendy home of SXSW has got to count for a lot.
Still, the list can help you discover places you hadn’t thought of and certainly, raises a red flag if you were considering Toledo or Cleveland or Stockton, California, all of which are in the bottom 10. Dead last is Detroit.
California, as might be expected of the nation’s most populous state, has 16 cities in the top half of the list. Arizona comes in second with 8 cities, including Phoenix. But Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, some of the less populated states, rank among the top places for jobs and living; South Burlington, Vermont scored 2nd on the overall best cities list, and was actually #1 for jobs.
