It’s the question on the mind of every college senior, especially as graduation day begins to draw closer and closer: “Where am I going to live and work after college?”
The good news is that with the job market finally on the upswing and hiring accelerating to its fastest pace in a decade, this year’s grads will have a much wider range of choices than those who graduated during the Great Recession and it’s long, grinding aftermath. Instead of taking the first available job in a desperate attempt to avoid living in mom and dad’s basement, they’ll be able to make a considered decision about where and how to start their career.
Many of them will look to popular destination cities like New York, Houston, and Atlanta, but for grads who are considering staying in their alma mater’s hometown, many college towns have thriving job markets, as well as the cultural and quality of life benefits of proximity to a major university.
To find out which twenty college towns had the best job markets, we looked at anonymized application actions from within our database of millions of job postings, calculated the ratio of job applicants to open positions, and ranked U.S. college towns according to the level of competition.
The Best College Town Job Markets
1. Fargo, ND
School: North Dakota State University
Who’s hiring: Education, healthcare, manufacturing, and agriculture.
2. Boise, ID
School: Boise State University
Who’s hiring: Tech, healthcare, education, and energy.
3. Fort Collins, CO
School: Colorado State University
Who’s hiring: Education, tech, and manufacturing.
4. Madison, WI
School: University of Wisconsin – Madison
Who’s hiring: Bio-tech, tech, healthcare, food processing.
5. Green Bay, WI
School: University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
Who’s hiring: Healthcare, food processing, paper processing.
6. Lubbock, TX
School: Texas Tech University
Who’s hiring: Education, financial services, administrative services, manufacturing
7. Peoria, IL
School: Bradley University
Who’s hiring: Education, healthcare, information technology
8. Beaumont, TX
School: Lamar University
Who’s hiring: Trade and transportation, financial services, professional and business services
9. Albany, NY
School: Albany Medical College
Who’s hiring: Healthcare, education, technology
10. Kalamazoo, MI
School: Western Michigan University
Who’s hiring: Pharmaceuticals, medical devices, power management
Here is the entire list of the 20 Best College Town Job Markets:
- Fargo, ND
- Boise, ID
- Fort Collins, CO
- Madison, WI
- Green Bay, WI
- Lubbock, TX
- Peoria, IL
- Beaumont, TX
- Albany, NY
- Kalamazoo, MI
- Lexington, KY
- South Bend, IN
- Lafayette, LA
- Worcester, MA
- Syracuse, NY
- Tucson, AZ
- Reno, NV
- Springfield, MA
- Portland, OR
- Gainesville, FL
