2018’s Best & Worst Places to Start a Career

Deciding where to lay the foundation for a long and prosperous career can be a tall order, especially for recent graduates entering the job market for the first time. After all, there are many factors — job-market saturation, housing affordability and commuter-friendliness, for instance — to consider about each prospective area. The market is ripe for new graduates, though, with an unemployment rate of only 4.1 percent as of March 2018. And employers plan to hire 4 percent more graduates from the Class of 2018 than they did from the Class of 2017.

Starting a career doesn’t need to be that difficult or intimidating. WalletHub compared the relative market strength and overall livability of more than 180 U.S. cities to help recent college graduates find the best cradles for their budding careers. We examined each city based on 27 key metrics that range from the availability of entry-level jobs to monthly average starting salary to workforce diversity. A complete breakdown of our findings, a detailed methodology and expert career advice can be found below.