While hiring from city-to-city varied in December, Memphis (+19%), Tampa (+16%), and Miami (+19%) saw the job market heating up with double digit gains in hiring levels. Washington, D.C., a strong employment stalwart, dropped dramatically with a 26-point slide to 139, its lowest level since December 2010. New York City (-8%), Chicago (-6%) and Milwaukee (-8%) also saw hiring opportunities decline in December.
To determine the cities with the 10 best and worst job markets each month, the CareerCast.com/JobSerf Index surveys 30 different major metro areas across the U.S. for per capita job availability. Rather than simply reporting the cities with the most and least jobs, the Index measures the number of job openings relative to population. This gives a more complete picture of how easy (or difficult) it is to get a new job in each metro area.
Want to know where the jobs are right now? Check out December 2011’s 10 Best Cities for Finding a New Job:
| Rank | City | Score | Ranking Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Washington, D.C. | 139 | +/-0 |
| 2 | Boston, MA | 123 | +/-0 |
| 3 | San Francisco | 106 | +/-0 |
| 4 | Seattle | 98 | +/-0 |
| 5 | Baltimore | 82 | +/-0 |
| 6 | Atlanta | 79 | +/-0 |
| 7 | Nashville | 76 | +1 |
| 8 | Chicago | 75 | -1 |
| 9 | Denver | 67 | +1 |
| 10 | New York | 66 | -1 |
Continue to December’s 10 Worst Cities to Find a Job