Scottsdale is ranked the top city for getting a job according to WalletHub’s look at 2017’s Best & Worst Cities for Jobs.
With “get a better job” being one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions in the U.S., the unemployment rate dropping to its lowest since 2007 and employers expecting to hire nearly 6 percent more college graduates from the Class of 2017 than they did from the previous graduating class, the personal-finance website WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of the best and worst cities for jobs.
In order to identify the strongest local job markets in the U.S., WalletHub’s analysts compared the 150 of the most populated cities across 23 key metrics. The data set ranges from “job opportunities” to “employment growth” to “monthly median starting salary.”
Best Cities for Jobs
| Overall Rank | City | Total Score | ‘Job Market’ Rank | ‘Socioeconomic Environment’ Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scottsdale | 70.48 | 1 | 2 |
| 7 | Chandler | 62.71 | 16 | 8 |
| 9 | Tempe | 62.17 | 15 | 12 |
| 11 | Peoria | 61.26 | 14 | 37 |
| 18 | Gilbert | 59.59 | 27 | 17 |
| 47 | Glendale | 55.99 | 33 | 96 |
| 49 | Mesa | 55.54 | 41 | 62 |
| 55 | Phoenix | 55.17 | 46 | 70 |
| 102 | Tucson | 48.81 | 110 | 72 |
| Best Cities for Jobs | Worst Cities for Jobs | |||
| 1 | Scottsdale, AZ | 141 | Rochester, NY | |
| 2 | Plano, TX | 142 | Tallahassee, FL | |
| 3 | Orlando, FL | 143 | Cleveland, OH | |
| 4 | Sioux Falls, SD | 144 | Worcester, MA | |
| 5 | San Francisco, CA | 145 | Oxnard, CA | |
| 6 | Rancho Cucamonga, CA | 146 | Buffalo, NY | |
| 7 | Chandler, AZ | 147 | Newark, NJ | |
| 8 | Salt Lake City, UT | 148 | Bakersfield, CA | |
| 9 | Tempe, AZ | 149 | Fresno, CA | |
| 10 | Raleigh, NC | 150 | Detroit, MI | |
Best & Worst
- Tacoma, Wash., has the highest monthly median starting salary (adjusted by cost of living), $3,428, which is 2.5 times higher than in Honolulu, the city with the lowest at $1,360.
- Gilbert, Ariz., has the highest median annual income (adjusted by cost of living), $85,948, which is 3.3 times higher than in Hialeah, Fla., the city with the lowest at $25,827.
- Lincoln, Neb., the city with the lowest unemployment rate, 2.5 percent, which is five times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest at 12.4 percent.
- Plano, Texas, the city with the fewest number of part-time employees for every 100 full-time employees, 38.04, which is 2.6 times fewer than in Tallahassee, Fla., the city with the most at 97.36.
- Fremont, Calif., the city with the lowest share of workers living in poverty, 2.3 percent, which is 8.7 times lower than in Tallahassee, Fla., the city with the highest at 20.1 percent.
To view the full report and your city’s rank, click here