As a recent college graduate looking for a job, you might want to move to Alabama.
The Job Search
Recent College Grads
In a 2026 report, ADP Research identified the places that job hunters in their 20’s could uptick their success rate. Comparing hiring, affordability, and wages in 53 major metro areas, they placed Birmingham-Hoover Alabama as #1. Birmingham-Hoover was in the top spot for its low cost-of-living, 16% wage growth to a $59,004 median, and strong hiring. Meanwhile, #2 went to Florida’s Tampa region.
The farther a point is from 0%, the better its performance in that category. As a result, Tampa’s hiring rate buoyed its rank:
You can see that a low rank went to some major metropolitan areas like Memphis and New York. Salt Lake City was last:
Other Groups
Much higher than the national average, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates is close to 5.7%. But it will depend on your major. According to 2024 data, if your field is aerospace engineering, you have a better chance at getting hired than an anthropologist.
Below, the NY Fed lets us compare recent grads to other groups:
Our Bottom Line: Ranking
Sometimes we can wonder about ranking. Seemingly based on indisputable math, the results can be convincing. However, we can ask what the numbers were based on. When U.S. News ranked cities, they said safety and job desirability were among their metrics. For The Economist’s EIU cities livability report, they included education, healthcare, and infrastructure.
More precisely, focusing on graduate business school ranking by 5 magazines, one Forbes writer perfectly illustrated how the question determines the results. In one example he explains that Forbes asks about the financial gain of graduates after 5 years as a ranking variable for graduate business schools while U.S. News uses starting salaries. And yet both say they are determining which business school is best.
You probably know where this is going. Yes, Birmingham-Hoover Alabama might be best for job hunting recent college grads. But it might not.
My sources and more: Thanks to Sherwood’s Chartr for inspiring today’s post. From there, this NY Fed analysis was helpful as was the original ADP Research report., The Economist and U.S. News.
Nicole Byers is an entertainment enthusiast! Nicole is an entertainment journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
