Salt Lake City is ranked number one in the United States to start a career. WalletHub compared more than 180 major U.S. cities based on 27 key indicators of career-friendliness.
“We wanted to check in and see not only where the jobs are, but when we’re talking about careers, we’re also talking about quality of life here,” said Jill Gonzalez, an analyst for WalletHub. “Where you’re working, where your living, and probably where you’re setting down roots.”
Gonzalez said Salt Lake City does well across the board with professional opportunities and quality of life.
“When we’re looking at professional opportunities, especially for recent grads, Salt Lake City has a very high number of entry-level jobs immediately available,” Gonzalez said. “People actually enjoy working for most of these companies.”
Starting salaries are higher compared to other cities and Gonzalez said the cost of living puts Salt Lake even farther ahead.
“I think most importantly the job growth is steady and it’s actually increasing for the past three years,” Gonzalez said. “More and more people seem to be opening up shop within Salt Lake City and because of that, there are more jobs and more people flocking into that area as well.”
In past studies, Salt Lake has always been in the top ten but this is the first time it reached that number one spot.
“I think that goes to show that people from Silicon Valley, Silicon Beach are flocking inward to Salt Lake City because they know they get more bang for their buck,” Gonzalez said. “They know people want to work there and want to live there.”
Gonzales said the actual job people pursue is important, but the quality of life makes the biggest difference.
