20 best job markets for new college graduates

Theo Thimou | May 12th, 2017

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When it comes to starting your career, you want to live in a place where there are a lot of job opportunities and low unemployment.

ZipRecruiter looked at more than 7 million active jobs across the United States to determine the best places to launch a career fresh out of college in 2017.

Best cities for young college grads in 2017

After sifting through all the data, ZipRecruiter identified 20 cities where there was a favorable ratio of entry-level job openings to the number of applicants and unemployment levels that are lower than the national average.

Here are the cities that made the cut:

1. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
2. Kansas City, MO-KS
3. Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA
4. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
5. Indianapolis-Carmel, IN
6. Salt Lake City, UT
7. Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH
8. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
9. Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN
10. Raleigh-Cary, NC
11. San Antonio, TX
12. San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA
13. Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
14. Denver-Aurora, CO
15. Austin-Round Rock, TX
16. Oklahoma City, OK
17. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
18. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
19. Orlando-Kissimmee, FL
20. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

Congratulations, you’ve graduated! Now what?

There’s great news on the job front for young college grads. More than 99% of employers who responded to the Job Outlook 2017 Spring Update done by National Association of Colleges and Employers say they’re going to be hiring candidates with bachelor’s degrees.

Got more education than just the standard four years? Good! Because 58% of respondents are looking for candidates with a master’s degree and 53% want to see an M.B.A. specifically.

So how do you actually land that first job out of school?

Money expert Clark Howard has some interesting advice: Don’t sit behind a computer applying for jobs online; get out there and get as close to the hiring decision makers as possible!

“Back in 1967, people found jobs through word of mouth, relying on friends, relatives and work colleagues to help them network,” Clark says. “We need to get back to that kind of thing, the same kind of approach people took 50 years ago.”

The beauty of networking is that most jobs are filled by people who are likely to bring in someone they know or know of for an interview — a friend of friend, a colleague of colleague. So while some people may think networking is passé in the digital age, Clark says no way. It’s what will get you in the door. Sometimes that’s all you need to shine!

Here’s another one of Clark’s tips:

“Nobody likes to be asked for a job, but everybody loves to give advice,” the consumer champ says. “So identify some key people in your industry who you can have a face-to-face meeting with and interview them for their career advice.”