For hot job prospects, head to the Midwest
If you think you need to head to a big city on the East or West Coast to find a great job, you might want to think again.
Midwestern cities such as Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and Louisville were among the top cities in the U.S. for finding a job, feeling good after you get it and being able to enjoy an affordable quality of life, according to a new study compiled by job search site Glassdoor.
“If you weigh (those criteria) equally, these are some of the surprising cities that come to the top,” says Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor’s chief economist.
Pittsburgh was No. 1 in Glassdoor’s rankings, with the median value of a home costing roughly three times the area’s median base salary of $44,000. Civil engineers, nurses and project managers were in particular demand in the one-time manufacturing hub.
Indianapolis and Kansas City, Mo., ranked second and third, with openings plentiful in job categories ranging from machine operator to software engineer and audit manager.
Meanwhile, the tech and finance capitals of San Francisco, New York and Boston didn’t even crack the top 25.
“When many people think about moving for work, especially young people, they think about big cities with flashy brand names like New York and San Francisco,” he says. But “while those cities have many jobs, they’re also very expensive and competitive.”
A key driver of job growth in many midsized U.S. cities is the rising need for tech expertise in a variety of industries, including retail and financial services, Chamberlain says. As a result, wellknown tech centers such as Seattle and San Jose are No. 17 and No. 22, respectively, on Glassdoor’s list.