Where to Find Jobs in the U.S.

published 9 January 2012

With the national unemployment rate at 8.5%, any job search can seem daunting. But there are actually some U.S. cities where high-paying jobs abound.

12 Best Cities for High Paying Jobs

Take, for instance, Manchester, N.H., where the ratio of job-seekers to high-paying job openings is a comfortable 2:1. Or Oklahoma City, where the unemployment rate has only once spiked above 7%. We ran the unemployment, income growth and job competition numbers for nearly 100 metropolitan areas to see which ones promise the most high-paying prospects. The top 12 appeared in our slideshow, 12 Best Cities for High-Paying Jobs. But there may be other possibilities in a city near you.

Use the map below to view the rankings for all 98 cities we considered. Green dots indicate the best cities for high paying jobs; red dots, the worst. Choose your city from the drop-down menu, or click it on the map, to see only its data. You can also hover over a dot to see its rank on our list. For more information on the ranking and its methodology, check out the slide show.