Glassdoor released its 2015 list of the 25 best cities to find jobs Tuesday, and it seems less populous areas might be the best bet.
“Many small and mid-size cities offer good economic value today,”
Glassdoor chief economist Andrew Chamberlain told Forbes, “but I don’t think public perceptions have kept up with that.”
In determining which locations give job hunters the best opportunity, the salary comparison and job search site evaluated 50 cities based on the ratio of available jobs to population, the cost of living, and residential job satisfaction.
The No. 1 city was Raleigh, North Carolina. With a medium base salary of about $51,000, Raleigh is higher than many cities on the list. Median home values there are just shy of $200,000.
Chamberlain told Forbes that Raleigh has pulled in major companies like IBM and Cisco and is now starting to rein in technology companies.
“[Raleigh is] attracting away startup and tech jobs from more expensive traditional cities, but they’ve maintained a reasonable cost of living at the same time,” he said.
Raleigh also received a job satisfaction rating of 3.3 out of 5.
“Raleigh has long held a reputation for tech companies looking to flee the expensive and congested Northeast corridor,” Glassdoor’s report read. “Couple this with Raleigh’s walkable neighborhoods and affordable homes, it’s no surprise that Raleigh stands out as the best city for jobs.”
While Chamberlain describes Raleigh as a “fast-growing Mid-size tech magnet,” the next two places are “former industrial cities that have modernized.”
Kansas City, Missouri, and Oklahoma City follow.
“Some of America’s industrial cities have not made that transition successfully, but these cities have,” Chamberlain said. “Kansas City used to be dominated by stockyards and shipping. Today it’s a city where Google is rolling out its Google Fiber products.”
New York doesn't even make the list because of its high cost of living.
“When you look at the data on where job opportunities are and what cost of living looks like, the list may upset many stereotypes people have about small and mid-size cities,” Chamberlain said.
Here's the rest of the top 25:
4. Austin, Texas
5. Seattle, Washington
6. Salt Lake City, Utah
7. San Jose, California
8. Louisville, Kentucky
9. San Antonio, Texas
10. Washington, D.C.
11. St. Louis, Missouri
12. San Francisco, California
13. Columbus, Ohio
14. Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
15. Boston, Massachusetts
16. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
17. Atlanta, Georgia
18. Memphis, Tennessee
19. Indianapolis, Indiana
20. Chicago, Illinois
21. Houston, Texas
22. Baltimore, Maryland
23. Richmond, Virginia
24. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
25. Nashville, Tennessee
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