These Are the Best Cities for Jobseekers This Year

There are countless reasons why hunting for a job is a uniquely stressful nightmare, not least of which is figuring out where in the country you'd have the best shot at scoring a great gig. Luckily, it just got a bit easier to narrow the search, thanks to a brand new list of the best cities for jobseekers right now. 

For the folks out there looking to change jobs and potentially their hometown at the same time, the research team at Indeed.com just unveiled a fresh list featuring the best cities for jobseekers in 2019. The ranking is the product of some serious number-crunching, using both census data and Indeed's vast archive of employee-sourced intel and reviews. Specifically, they weighed major US metro areas using four factors: low level of competition for jobs, a high salary score, best company reviews, and lowest unemployment rates. Then, they identified places that ranked highest across all four and ranked them accordingly.

Topping the list as best city for jobseekers this year is San Jose, followed closely by San Francisco, with Boston coming in third. Here's the full ranking of the top 25 cities.

25. Providence, RI
24. Miami, FL
23. Richmond, VA
22. Cincinnati, OH
21. Kansas City, MO
20. Columbus, OH
19. Virginia Beach, VA
18. Memphis, TN
17. Louisville, KY
16. Sacramento, CA
15. St. Louis, MO
14. Austin, TX
13. San Diego, CA
12. San Antonio, TX
11. Indianapolis, IN
10. Salt Lake City, UT
9. Washington, DC
8. Oklahoma City, OK
7. Milwaukee, WI
6. Minneapolis, MN
5. Nashville, TN
4. Birmingham, AL
3. Boston, MA
2. San Francisco, CA
1. San Jose, CA

Notably, five of the cities on the list are in California, while some major hubs are missing entirely (looking at you, New York and Chicago). Also, it's somewhat surprising to see a place like Birmingham so highly ranked. Though, as the Indeed team points out, the southern city has seen a recent boom in the healthcare industry and nearly 9% of the city's citizens now work in that sector. 

It's also worth noting that while many of the cities listed above ranked highly in terms of their salary score, that does not necessarily mean that the paychecks are the biggest there. Rather, they're the places where pay is relatively high when adjusted for cost of living. 

That said, even if you have a better chance of securing a solid, good-paying job in a certain place, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll want to live there. You may be more interested in the best spots for young professionals, or the most millennial-friendly locales.

Then again, if you're looking to test out a few different cities and absolutely love eating BBQ, you might not even have to move to score a great new gig.

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