NYC ranked dead last as worst city to start a career, study shows
New York City is where dreams are made of — but not for recent college grads looking to kickstart their professional careers, according to a study.
The Big Apple ranked dead last out of 182 cities in “2023’s Best & Worst Places to Start a Career” report, conducted by personal finance site WalletHub.
Among the losing ranks: Gulfport, Miss., in 181st place; Newark, N.J., in 180th; and Detroit in 179th.
NYC took the 182nd place after ranking the lowest on 26 metrics across categories considering professional opportunities and quality of life. Metrics included the number of entry-level jobs available per 100,000 working-age residents, average monthly starting salary, housing affordability, average length of the work week and more.
The study also found that New York has the lowest number of entry-level jobs per 100,000 professionals aged 16 and up — 18 times lower than the city with the most availability, Orlando.
Although bleak, the Big Apple did one place better in the ranking of professional opportunities — taking 181st ahead of Gulfport, Miss. — and placed 174th in quality of life.
The quality of life in New York City ranked better than in Oxnard, Moreno Valley and Stockton in California, as well as Detroit, Bridgeport, Conn., and Newark, NJ.
The city ranking the lowest in quality of life — where metrics spanned median annual income, average commute time, projected population growth and singles-friendliness — was Hialeah, Fla., while the highest was Tempe, Ariz.
WalletHub’s rankings were determined with help of data collected from the US Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Indeed.com and Glassdoor, among other companies and research groups pertaining to residential areas and economics.
New York’s dismal ranking on the WalletHub report comes days after New York City’s sky-high rents hit record-breaking levels for the second consecutive month.
Manhattan tenants were slammed with an average rent of $4,241 for April — a 1.6% increase from March’s $4,175 median price, according to a joint market report conducted by real estate brokerage Douglas Elliman and appraiser Miller Samuel.
In Manhattan, the average monthly cost for a studio apartment saw the biggest increase from last year.
It was up 13.5% in April, with a median price of $3,235.
The spike in average rent for April was even worse in Brooklyn and Queens, surging 14.8% and 12.8%, respectively, compared with last year.
Miller Samuel CEO Jonathan Miller told The Post that seeing record-high rents for the second straight month, coupled with the “roughly 20% month-over-month drop in new leases” suggests that “tenants are perhaps throwing their hands up and renewing because options are limited for equivalent amenities.”
However, there are no signs that rates will slow ahead of the Big Apple’s peak rental season in the summer.
Miller said that rent drops before then would be “contingent on an economic event, like a recession, with notable job loss.”
Without such an economic event to change the course of the rental market, “it’s reasonable that we may see additional records over the next four months,” Miller added.
