March 2011: 10 Best and Worst Cities to Find a Job

Among U.S. cities, hiring activity saw a major upswing in March, indicating that the job market may be turning the corner. Louisville, with a 15% gain, was the leader in per capita job growth this month, followed by Hartford (+9%) and Memphis (+8%). San Francisco, Detroit, and Nashville each showed modest gains of 6% in March.

Want to know where the jobs are? These metro areas made up the 10 best cities to find a job in March:

Moving to the bottom half of the cities list, Riverside, CA once again finished in last place. Hit hard by the economic downturn, the metro area in Southern California could soon mark its third straight year as the worst U.S. city for job seekers. Despite the recent surge in employment activity, hiring in other cities besides Riverside stalled as well. Los Angeles experienced an 8% drop in job availability, while hiring in Miami slid by 6% and Minneapolis, Atlanta and San Diego all saw employment activity drop by 5% overall.

If you want to relocate but are worried about moving to a bad job market, take note of these metro areas, which make up March 2011’s 10 Worst Cities to Find a Job: