The Best U.S. Cities For Jobs In 2016

With the sharp decline in oil prices recently, the energy sector and cities where energy-sector jobs dominate the landscape have had a rough go of it. While somewhere like Houston, the energy capital of the world, has benefited from an economy that is much more diversified than in the past, smaller energy-dependent cities have really struggled. Even with its newly diversified economy, Houston, despite being the largest city in Texas, is not one of the best cities for jobs in the United States.

Many of the best cities in the United States for jobs do share a major component to their economy, however. While energy jobs have experienced some trouble, jobs in the tech sector have been blossoming. It comes as no surprise that cities that offer the strongest tech sectors also offer the most job opportunities, but to find out exactly which cities provide the best job opportunities for 2016, Glassdoor analyzed the top 50 most populated U.S. metros and scored them across four factors: hiring opportunity, cost of living, job satisfaction, and work-life balance.

Each section was weighted equally and the city was scored on an overall scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest potential score, Co. Exist reports. The outcome is a list that is dominated by tech-heavy cities. In fact, the top three cities on the list are all tech hubs on the West Coast as San Jose, San Francisco, and Seattle took the first, second, and third spots respectively.

Of the four factors the cities’ scores were based on, San Jose had the highest score in three of them: hiring opportunity, job satisfaction, and work-life balance. Its high cost of living is a negative, but it is outweighed by the other three categories. Part of what makes San Jose such a strong place for jobs is the fact that it is home to some of the largest companies in the country such as Facebook, Google, and PayPal.

Boston and Washington, D.C. round out the top five. Even though the top three cities are located on the West Coast, the majority of the cities in the top 25 are actually clustered on the eastern side of the country. One of the bigger surprises about the list is the number of cities within the top 25 that are located in the Rust Belt. Another surprise comes in the fact that New York City is nowhere to be found. Raleigh, N.C., which took the top spot on Glassdoor’s 2015 list, fell to number eight for this year.

For the full list of the top 25 U.S. cities for jobs, follow the link below.

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