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Provo, Logan, Salt Lake Named Best Cities for Career Opportunities

nal.usda.gov

For the second year in a row, three Utah cities made it onto a list of thetop 25 best cities for career opportunities. Two of them are in the top 10.

 

 

The New York financial company SmartAsset examined unemployment rate, median income and annual job growth rate. They also looked at how much employees make at the beginning of their career and how much they make at the end and compared the two.

 

Based on those criteria, Salt Lake City was ranked #19, Logan was ranked #4 and Provo was ranked the best city in the nation for career opportunities. AJ Smith, SmartAsset’s VP of Content, said the company tried to look beyond just employment rates.

 

  “We were interested, not in just finding a job, but finding somewhere to settle down and build that career,” Smith said.

 

Median salaries aren’t necessarily better in these cities, though. In Logan, the median salary is just over $29,000. That’s less than any other city on the list. But the company says those who hold a job in Logan for 20 years or more could double their salaries from the time they are hired. Smith said this is valuable in an area with such a low cost of living.

 

“You can be making a very high salary, but if you’re paying 50 percent in your rent or in your mortgage then you’re not able to save very much, you’re not able to meet other goals you have,” Smith said. “So we did look at those median annual housing costs also to kind of show where you were able to have some money left over after you paid for that roof over your head.”

 

According to the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the job market in these and other towns in Utah is doing well, especially in the technology sector. Utah is the #1 in tech employment growth in the Western region. There are more than 7,000 technology-related businesses in Utah, which make up 15 percent of the state’s payroll. Other sectors are doing well, like the industrial sector, where jobs are continually being added.