The 20 Best Cities for New College Graduates

For those of us who graduated in the wake of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, it has been tough finding good work, but the job market for young people dramatically began to improve starting around Barack Obama’s second term.

Source: tradingeconomics.com

The overall unemployment rate currently sits at 4.5% and the youth unemployment rate for college graduates is nearly half that at 2.5%. This has lead to a rise in optimism in the youth job market on all fronts, but especially amongst recent graduates. This is borne out in ZipRecruiter’s data that they shared with Paste. According to ZipRecruiter’s query of their database of over 7 million active jobs, 78.9% of new grads are optimistic that they will find a job, and it is likely due at least in part, to the success of the cities below.

38.8% of new graduates said that they were willing to move anywhere for a new job, and if you are part of that group or considering being a part of it, here are the 20 best places to move, and the industries that are thriving in these areas.

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The 20 Best Cities for New College Graduates

1. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI

2. Kansas City, MO-KS

3. Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA

4. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

5. Indianapolis-Carmel, IN

6. Salt Lake City, UT

7. Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH

8. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA

9. Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN

10. Raleigh-Cary, NC

11. San Antonio, TX

12. San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA

13. Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ

14. Denver-Aurora, CO

15. Austin-Round Rock, TX

16. Oklahoma City, OK

17. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

18. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX

19. Orlando-Kissimmee, FL

20. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA