By Paul Liotta
Staten Island Advance, N.Y.
(TNS)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere, but don’t expect to start off in New York City.
A recent analysis from WalletHub ranked New York City as the worst of 182 U.S. cities to start a career in, based on 25 metrics including the availability of entry-level jobs, the average monthly starting salary, and housing affordability.
“Transitioning out of school and into the workforce can be a difficult and stressful process, but certain cities make things a lot easier than others,” Chip Lupo, a WalletHub analyst, said. “The best cities for starting a career not only have a lot of job opportunities but also provide substantial income growth potential and satisfying work conditions. It’s also important to consider factors such as how fun a city is to live in or how good of a place it is for raising a family, to ensure life satisfaction outside of your career.”
Atlanta (Georgia), Orlando (Florida), and Austin (Texas) made up the top three American cities for starting a career, according to WalletHub.
Atlanta came in No. 1 because of its surplus of entry-level jobs, high rate of reported satisfaction with those jobs, and quality of life metrics.
For its analysis, WalletHub looked at the nation’s 150 most populous cities along with at least two cities in each state.
WalletHub then used the 25 metrics to break each city down into two rankings—its professional opportunities and its quality of life.
Some of the metrics included the availability of entry-level jobs, the monthly average starting salary, and the median annual income of each city.
Sources for the analysis included the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The sample only considered each city proper and excluded the outlying metro areas.
Photo credit: Luca Bravo/Unsplash
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© 2026 Staten Island Advance, N.Y. Visit www.silive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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