Go South, Young Man! Top cities to start career all below the Mason-Dixon

With graduation season upon us and employers planning to hire 7.3% more graduates from the Class of 2025 than they did from the Class of 2024, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2025's Best and Worst Places to Start a Career as well as expert commentary.

To help recent graduates launch their careers in the right place, WalletHub compared more than 180 U.S. cities based on 25 key indicators of career-friendliness. The data set ranges from the availability of entry-level jobs to monthly average starting salary to housing affordability.

Best vs. Worst

• Durham, North Carolina, has the highest monthly average starting salary (adjusted for cost of living), which is 2.9 times higher than in Juneau, Alaska, the city with the lowest.
  
• Columbia, Maryland, has the highest median annual household income (adjusted for cost of living), which is 3.4 times higher than in Detroit, the city with the lowest.
  
• Oxnard, California, has the highest workforce diversity, which is 2.3 times higher than in New Haven, Connecticut, the city with the lowest.
  
• Rapid City, South Dakota, has the lowest unemployment rate, which is 6.3 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest.

To view the full report and your city's rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-cities-to-start-a-career/3626