New York and San Francisco are no longer the top stars when it comes to finding a job.
New York and San Francisco are no longer the top stars when it comes to finding a job. Metropolitan areas such as Denver, Colorado; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Las Vegas, Nevada, stand out as the most dynamic job markets in the United States, according to a recent report from ADP Research.
The study evaluated labor conditions in over 50 metropolitan areas across the country and selected the best cities for job seekers, based on factors like starting salaries, wage growth, and hiring rates between 2023 and 2024.
The five best cities for finding a job in the U.S. are:
- Denver, Colorado
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Seattle, Washington
- Portland, Oregon
Job opportunities are more concentrated in southern and Sun Belt states, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is largely because the leading companies in these regions belong to sectors less impacted by disruptions caused by the pandemic or inflation.
In Denver, for example, key sectors driving employment are financial services, healthcare, and manufacturing, industries considered “recession-proof,” according to Ben Hanowell, director of workforce analysis research at ADP Research and author of the report.
In other cities, such as Portland and Seattle, one or two sectors stand out in generating a large number of jobs. Both cities experienced a continuous demand for professionals in the education and healthcare sectors over the past year.
“Big cities don’t always offer more job opportunities,” Hanowell noted. “Even in the context of a national slowdown in hiring and wage growth, these smaller markets present great opportunities for job seekers,” he added.
The star: Cybersecurity
Despite thousands of global job openings in cybersecurity, companies report great difficulty in filling these positions. With nearly four million professionals needed in the field, the gap between organizations that manage to withstand cyberattacks and those that don’t is widening, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF).
In the WEF’s 2024 Global Cybersecurity Outlook survey, 90% of executives surveyed emphasized the urgency of taking immediate action to address the growing inequality in cybersecurity. This challenge is heightened by the emergence of new technologies, such as generative artificial intelligence, which exacerbates existing issues.
The shortage of resources, skills, and talent in cybersecurity continues to grow at an accelerating pace and represents the main obstacle for companies to strengthen their ability to withstand cyberattacks. According to the report, 71% of organizations have vacancies on their cybersecurity teams, which presents a significant opportunity for those trained in this field to access better job opportunities.