With 2025 bringing the chance for new beginnings and finding a better job often proving to be more effective at keeping up with inflation than cost-cutting, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on the Best Places to Find a Job in 2025. That’s good news for Arizona residents because four Metro Phoenix cities rank among the 20 Best Places to Find a Job in 2025.

With 2024 behind us, it’s time to think about fresh starts, whether that means small changes or a complete life overhaul. For many people, finding a new or better job will be a top resolution.

The job market remained strong in 2024, and unemployment stayed fairly low. Some employers even have experienced labor shortages, which puts people looking for jobs in a position of leverage when it comes to negotiating their compensation and benefits.

Ultimately, your luck of finding work depends largely on location. To help you with the job hunt, WalletHub compared more than 180 U.S. cities across 31 key indicators of job-market strength. They range from job opportunities per job seeker to employment growth to the monthly average starting salary.

Main Findings

Top 25 Best Places to Find a Job

In-Depth Look at the Best Cities for Jobs

Scottsdale AZ

Scottsdale, AZ, is the best city for jobs in 2025, in large part because it boasts one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, which demonstrates that most residents have no trouble finding work. Scottsdale ranks first when it comes to the prevalence of paid internship opportunities as well, so it’s great for people looking for workforce experience during school.

Scottsdale doesn’t just deliver quantity when it comes to jobs, though – it has quality as well. This is evidenced by the fact that the city has one of the highest median household incomes in the country, at over $102,000, adjusted for the cost of living.

Finally, Scottsdale provides a good quality of life, ranking sixth among the best cities for recreation and 13th among the best cities for families. It’s also a safe place to live, with the 12th-lowest violent crime rate in the U.S.

Pittsburgh PA

The second-best city for jobs is Pittsburgh, which stands out because of the number of available jobs and the quality of its companies. Pittsburgh has the most job opportunities per capita, along with the third-most full-time job opportunities per capita at companies rated 4.5+ stars on Glassdoor.

The high-quality nature of jobs in Pittsburgh is evident by the fact that residents have the ninth-highest level of job satisfaction in the nation. In addition, jobs in Pittsburgh give good benefits. For example, the city has the fourth-highest percentage of workers with access to an employer-based retirement plan.

If looking for love is a priority on top of finding a job, you’ll also be happy to know that Pittsburgh is the fourth-best city for singles. It’s also a convenient and wallet-friendly city to live in, with the 11th-best public transit system in the country and the 18th-lowest median house price.

Columbia MD

Columbia, MD, is the third-best city for jobs, and one of the major contributing factors is that it has the highest median household incomes in the country, at nearly $124,000, adjusted for the cost of living. Columbia also ranks fourth when it comes to net employment outlook, which measures the quarterly percentage of employers who expect to add employees minus the percentage who expect to have fewer of them.

One big threat to job security in the future is automation and AI, and Columbia jobs are relatively safe from this. Columbia has the ninth-lowest share of jobs that are likely to be automated in the coming decades.

To top things off, Columbia offers affordable rent, which helps people’s income stretch further. The average annual fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment is only around 16% of the median household income in Columbia. That’s the sixth-lowest percentage in the country.

Article reposted from AZ Big Media.