Ray A. Smith, Haley Zimmerman and Jason French:
Memo to job-hunting college grads: It pays to take your search to cities just beyond America’s biggest metro areas.
In one of the toughest markets for entry-level jobs in years, several second-tier cities—including Raleigh, N.C.—rise above the pack for their strong hiring, decent salaries and affordability. Instead of Atlanta or Chicago, consider Birmingham, Ala., or Milwaukee. Or think Baltimore, in lieu of Washington, D.C.
Those alternative cities, along with Austin, Texas, rank as the top five most promising locations to find work for recent college graduates, according to a new study by payroll-services provider ADP.
Researchers crunched public cost-of-living data and ADP payroll data for more than five million U.S. workers in their 20s to rank 55 metro areas on three metrics: affordability, wages and hiring activity. They then weighed hiring rates for jobs that typically require a degree against affordability-adjusted wages in each city to devise a single, overall ranking.
What sets the top-ranking cities apart? Raleigh, Baltimore and Austin—all of which scored in last year’s top five, too—tend to have a higher-than-usual concentration of technology, health and financial firms, says Ben Hanowell, ADP Research’s director of people analytics.