The availability of Phoenix jobs and cheap living have made the city one of the best for recent college graduates.
Apartments.com and CareerRookie.com recently ranked Phoenix second on the list of the "Top 10 Best Cities for Recent College Graduates." The report compared the cost of renting an apartment, concentration of young adults, and the cities' job inventory as of March - especially jobs that require less than one year of experience.
One positive for Phoenix is that, even though the city was hit hard by the economic downturn and housing crash, its unemployment rate remains below the national average.
During March, the Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale area's unemployment rate decreased from 9.2 percent to 8.9 percent after remaining steady for two months in a row. That decrease keeps the area's rate below the national average at the time of 9.7 percent.
The Phoenix area had a total non-farm employment of 1,700,100 workers during March, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is up from 1,695,400 workers during February, but a 3.4 percent decrease from last year.
In addition, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Phoenix is $669 per month, which is lower than every city, except Cincinnati's average of $669 per month. The price also is much lower than the $1,319 average in Los Angeles and the $1,366 average in New York.
About 200 major metro areas were considered for the list. Atlanta was ranked first, followed by Phoenix, Denver, Dallas, Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Cincinnati, Baltimore and Los Angeles.
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