Sun Belt Dominates Best Cities for U.S. Job Seekers, According to New Data from Indeed

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Indeed, the world’s number one job site, debuted today the 25 best cities for job seekers in the United States, and found strong showings from the Sun Belt states of Florida, California, and Texas. Three of the top ten metro areas are in Florida, with Miami topping the list (#1), followed by Orlando (#2), and Jacksonville (#7). Interestingly, all of the top 15 metros on the list are in the south and west regions of the country.

A stronger labor market affords many opportunities for job seekers right now and is allowing for more lifestyle considerations to influence their job search. As such, Indeed created the “Best Cities for Job Seekers” list by analyzing U.S. metro areas with the most job postings according to four categories: job market favorability, salary weighted for cost of living, and employee rankings for work/life balance and job security and advancement opportunities.

“The Sun Belt continues to be a region of high-growth and opportunity as companies and workers alike have moved toward strong job markets,” said Paul D’Arcy, senior vice president at Indeed. “We have seen a migration trend where people are moving away from cold places looking to live in warm climates, so it is no surprise that we are seeing companies providing more job opportunities in Sun Belt cities like Miami, Austin, and San Diego.”

Miami and South Florida serves as U.S. headquarters for Latin American operations for hundreds of multinational corporations including Disney, American Airlines, Cisco, Exxon, Microsoft, Kraft Foods, Oracle, Sony, Visa International, and more, adding to a robust job market. According to Indeed data, the Miami metro area work/life balance and job security/advancement ratings by employees are ranked highest. The high marks for employee satisfaction coupled with job market favorability and salary/cost of living brought Miami to the top of Indeed’s “Best Cities for Job Seekers” list.

Texas and California metro areas made a strong showing on the list, with Austin (#4), Sacramento (#5), San Jose (#6), San Diego (#8), and Houston (#9) appearing in the top ten. Indeed findings also indicate that Raleigh (#3) ranked highest for job market favorability and Seattle (#17) ranked highest for salary/cost of living.

What the list is missing are cities from the manufacturing-heavy Midwest. “Manufacturing jobs have steadily declined over the years and haven’t shown promise for career growth like a generation ago,” said D’Arcy. “Those states are working to diversify their economy to attract workers and keep talent in their state.”

Indeed’s Best Cities for Job Seekers 2017
Rank	Metro	Criteria				Indeed City Score
		Job Market Favorability Percentile*	Salary Percentile*	Work-Life Balance Percentile*	Job Security & Advancement Percentile*
1.	Miami, FL	82%	8%	100%	100%	89.2
2.	Orlando, FL	98%	18%	84%	94%	85.5
3.	Raleigh, NC	100%	65%	39%	35%	84.5
4.	Austin, TX	90%	59%	80%	69%	82.1
5.	Sacramento, CA	69%	86%	90%	73%	81.8
6.	San Jose, CA	71%	29%	92%	88%	78.6
7.	Jacksonville, FL	94%	35%	63%	80%	76.5
8.	San Diego, CA	84%	4%	96%	98%	75.1
9.	Houston, TX	67%	80%	78%	71%	74.6
10.	Memphis, TN	80%	63%	53%	82%	72.6
11.	Las Vegas, NV	76%	43%	82%	78%	72.5
12.	San Francisco, CA	45%	41%	86%	86%	70.0
13.	Riverside, CA	78%	12%	94%	84%	69.7
14.	Atlanta, GA	59%	88%	61%	65%	68.6
15.	Los Angeles, CA	43%	6%	98%	96%	66.6
16.	San Antonio, TX	57%	53%	71%	76%	64.9
17.	Seattle, WA	49%	98%	49%	43%	63.6
18.	Hartford, CT	96%	61%	35%	4%	62.3
19.	Charlotte, NC	88%	69%	41%	49%	61.7
20.	Tampa, FL	92%	10%	73%	61%	57.3
21.	Providence, RI	86%	67%	45%	24%	56.63
22.	Virginia Beach, VA	53%	14%	76%	92%	52.71
23.	Phoenix, AZ	14%	84%	65%	59%	51.78
24.	Dallas, TX	22%	49%	67%	67%	51.76
25.	Richmond, VA	73%	73%	18%	39%	50.51

Indeed created this list by calculating standard scores for the 50 US metro areas with the most job postings according to four separate categories:

1. Job market favorability (ratio of job postings vs. job seeker interest)
2. Salary weighted for cost of living
3. Work/life balance rankings
4. Job security/advancement rankings

Each category is ranked by percentiles, which is a measure indicating the value below which a given percentage of observations in a group fall. For example, 80th percentile means a city scored better than 80 percent of comparable cities. Indeed summed the normalized values for each category and rescaled the total score with 100 as highest possible score. The list highlights the 25 metro areas with highest total scores. Learn more about this list here.

About Indeed:

More people find jobs on Indeed than anywhere else. Indeed is the #1 job site in the world and allows job seekers to search millions of jobs on the web or mobile in over 60 countries and 28 languages. More than 200 million people each month search for jobs, post resumes, and research companies on Indeed, and Indeed is the #1 source of external hires for thousands of companies (sources: SilkRoad & iCIMS). For more information, visit indeed.com.