The Best (& Worst) Cities for New Graduates Seeking Work

Graduation season is around the corner, which means it’s time to put that degree to work.

Many graduates have little to tie them to any particular place, so they can choose to start their careers where jobs are available. But which cities have the most jobs?

Data provided by Monster, the employment website, show the best and worst cities for job seekers, based on the number of openings. Monster used the CEB TalentNeuron tool to analyze all entry-level job ads posted online from January 1 to March 22, 2017 that require a bachelor’s, master’s or doctorate degree.

Where to Look for Work

Monster also released data on the occupations with the most openings (physical therapist was tops), and that offered the highest entry-level pay (software developers). Those first paychecks are increasingly important for new graduates, who face a growing mountain of student loan debt. (Wondering how student loan debt is affecting your credit? Check out a free snapshot of your credit report on Credit.com.)

Check out the 10 best cities for new graduates to find work and the five worst. Locations on the list are all in metropolitan statistical areas with populations of at least 200,000 or counties with populations of at least 15,000.

10th Best: Philadelphia

8,304 job postings

9th Best: Houston

10,021 job postings

8th Best: Seattle

10,512 job postings

7th Best: Atlanta

10,937 job postings

6th Best: Washington, D.C.

11,132 job postings

5th Best: San Francisco

11,244 job postings

4th Best: Boston

11,498 job postings

3rd Best: Los Angeles

11,933 job postings

2nd Best: Chicago

15,503 job postings

Best: New York

31,682 job postings

10th Worst: Prescott, Arizona

178 job postings

9th Worst: Lynchburg, Virginia

169 job postings

8th Worst: Yakima, Washington

161 job postings

7th Worst: Chico, California

156 job postings

6th Worst: Tyler, Texas

140 job postings

5th Worst: Merced, California

134 job postings

4th Worst: Longview, Texas

128 job postings

3rd Worst: Bellingham, Washington

122 job postings

2nd Worst: Bayou Cane, Louisiana

121 job postings

Worst: Laredo, Texas

114 job postings

Image: digitalskillet 

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