Columbia & Charleston Rank #5 & #6 As Best U.S. Cities For New College Grads To Start Careers

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.

Unfortunately, new graduates aren’t entering the market at a great time, as the unemployment rate for people ages 20 through 24 was 10.5% in April 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The good news is that employers plan to hire 7.2% more graduates from the Class of 2021 than they did from the Class of 2020. Due to increased hiring and the vaccine rollout, we should expect to see significant declines in unemployment this year.

In order to help new graduates start their search for a career, 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 28 key metrics that range from the availability of entry-level jobs to monthly average starting salary to housing affordability.

https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-cities-to-start-a-career/3626