The national jobless rate has been climbing steadily all year, yet some U.S. cities are faring much better than others, according to the latest CareerCast.com/JobSerf Employment Index, which measures managerial hiring across the U.S. So if you're a job seeker who's tailored your resume, honed your interview skills and built a robust network but still can't find a job, you might be best served by taking your job search long-distance to a stronger hiring market.
The city with the most job openings per capita is Washington, D.C., topping the list for the third month in a row. Benefiting from a recent surge in hiring for federal jobs, the nation's capital is one of just eight U.S. metro areas with better-than-average job availability per capita. Also for the third straight month, Boston and Seattle land in second and third place, respectively, helped by the recent upswing in hiring by high-tech industries.
While no new metro areas rose into the top eight cities for managerial hiring in September, there was some notable movement outside of the top three. After falling to sixth last month, an uptick in the number of available jobs boosted Chicago into fourth place in September, ahead of San Francisco. Keeping with the Northeast’s position as the top region for job availability, Baltimore rose to sixth place by trading places with Atlanta, which fell to eighth.
Surveying 30 major metro areas in all, the CareerCast.com/JobSerf Employment Index for September reports that strong performing areas continue to gain at the expense of weaker ones, to the point that the top cities now boast 4.5 times as many jobs as those at the bottom. As a result, job seekers looking to relocate need to think hard about which job market would be best for them. To start, consider the following list of the eight best cities to find a managerial job in September:
| City | Index Ranking | Index Score |
|---|---|---|
| Washington, D.C. | 1 | 133 |
| Boston | 2 | 99 |
| San Francisco | 3 | 65 |
| Seattle | 4 | 61 |
| Atlanta | 5 | 54 |
| Baltimore | 6 | 52 |
| New York | 7 | 50 |
| Chicago | 8 | 50 |
Of course, many cities outside of the top eight still offer ample job opportunities. Metro areas that boasted impressive gains in September included Milwaukee, Dallas and Denver, while Pittsburgh and Indianapolis offered significantly fewer available positions than the month before. In addition, while Los Angeles was previously on pace to break into the top eight by late fall, a poor performance in September has all but eliminated that chance.
Despite the rough September, Indy, LA and the Steel City still managed to finish outside the eight-worst list. For the third straight month, Riverside, in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, trailed all others as the worst city in the U.S. to find a white-collar job. At the forefront of the nation's housing crisis, Riverside continued to lag even as the job market began to recover over the past four months, and September's downturn has kept it in the bottom spot. That said, the city actually fared better this month than some others on the list, although it still posted a loss in job openings per capita from the month before.
Once again placing second to Riverside was Detroit, which has been hit hard by struggles in the auto industry, followed by Memphis. Tampa Bay moved up to become the fourth-worst city to find a managerial job, while surprisingly Miami, which had risen out of the bottom eight in August, fell back into sixth place. With a drop in job openings twice the rate of seventh-place St. Louis, Miami managed to help August’s eighth-place finisher, Phoenix, rise out of the bottom eight altogether. While those looking forward to the climate and beaches of the Magic City may be disappointed, Miami did manage to finish ahead of September's fifth-worst city for job seekers, Louisville, but was still behind St. Louis and Cincinnati, respectively.
If you're contemplating a change of scenery but are worried about the employment outlook, it might be best to cross the following metro areas off your list, which make up September's eight worst cities to find a managerial job:
| City | Index Ranking | Index Score |
|---|---|---|
| Riverside, CA | 30 | 12 |
| Detroit | 29 | 16 |
| Memphis | 28 | 19 |
| Louisville | 27 | 22 |
| Miami | 26 | 24 |
| Tampa | 25 | 25 |
| Phoenix | 24 | 26 |
| Indianapolis | 23 | 26 |
That said, finding a new job takes more than just striving to be an ideal candidate and picking a city with a healthy employment market. To help you find the most success, the CareerCast.com/JobSerf Employment Index breaks down hiring each month nationally, by region and across different job levels, so you can target your search accordingly. For more info see our complete report on U.S. job availability for September 2009:
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