Find Best Job Market with Online Tool

This online tool for exploring urban job markets is very cool.

It could be a big help for high school and college graduates looking for work, especially those willing to migrate to a new city and trying to figure where to go. What’s unique about it is that it ranks the nation’s large, mid-sized, and small cities based on the user’s personal preferences.

To use the tool, created by the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), the job hunter decides how high to rank the importance – from 5 (most important) to 1 (not important) – of nine different aspects of the job market and lifestyle in their ideal city: low unemployment, high average earnings, high labor force participation, public transportation, highly educated peers, low rent, high diversity, plentiful bars and restaurants, and many arts and entertainment options.

To test it, I selected a 5 for low unemployment and high labor force participation and a 1 for everything else (the bar scene, public transit, diversity etc.).  Cities like Minneapolis, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Austin came up as the best cities, when these two job-market criteria were most important.

AIER also compares different cities in a report, which is available here.

Of course, other things are important when relocating. But the tool forces job hunters to balance their priorities – a strong job market or a good bar scene?  To play around with AIER’s gadget, click here.

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