Via:NerdWallet
If you’re about to graduate from UT this May, or from anywhere for that matter, a new study suggests you should look for work right here in Austin.
According to a new study from the personal finance website Nerd Wallet, Austin is the 7th best city in the United States for recent grads. Austin scored well ahead of traditional post-college job hotspots like New York and San Francisco (which didn’t even make the top 10), and was the only Texas-city besides Lubbock that made the top 20.
The cities that did score higher than Austin were mostly in the bitterly cold Upper Midwest, the dreary Pacific Northwest or the greater Washington D.C. area.
The study looked at a number of variables that would influence a newly graduated job seeker: what percentage of the population has a degree, how many 20-29 year olds live in the city, the median income of bachelor degree holders, the number of jobs in fields like management or business, and how exorbitant your rent payments are likely to be.
In the end, Austin received high marks for affordability, abundance of tech jobs and high percentage of young residents. On average, people in Austin pay just 26 percent of their income as rent, and bring home just over $45,000 a year, meaning if you don't pay your taxes you could expect to have a leftover $33,300 to blow on student loan debt and drinks on 6th Street. Take Austin's vibrant nightlife, mild winter (ignore the summer), and the fact that the Austin Technology Council is predicting over 9,000 new tech jobs will be created in the next two years, and you have a pretty rosy picture for recent grads.
And if all that wasn't exciting enough, the study also mentions that another study from the University of Michigan predicts this year’s job market for recent grads is likely to be the best since the Great Recession. In fact, a whopping 97% of companies polled said they planned on hiring a new college grad – an increase of 13% over last year.
So if you’re about to graduate, congratulations, and it looks like you’re in the right place.
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