Jobs' search engine Indeed.com put together an insightful graphic that depicts the best and worst places geographically to look for work. Our nation's capital has the highest number of job postings in comparison to unemployed people...whereas Detroit is at the bottom of the list with just one job listing for every 18 people who are unemployed.

This is a reminder that sometimes a good career can be to move to a new location after of course considering important factors such as family and friends, cost of housing and living, etc.

This is also a reminder of doing local analysis before making an important decision. In my real estate books, I've long stressed the importance of researching the local job market among other factors. That's why folks simply painting the national real estate market with a broad brush are wrong because market conditions vary from area to area. The job market is no different in that regard.

Job Market Competition

How hard is it to find a job in your city? Here's a comparison of the number of job postings
compared with number of unemployed for the 50 most populous metropolitan areas in the U.S.

June 2009

Rank	Change	Metropolitian Area	Job Postings vs. Unemployed Persons		Ratio
1		Washington, DC			6:1
2		Jacksonville, FL			3:1
3	4	Baltimore, MD			1:1
4	1	Salt Lake City, UT			1:2
5	4	New York, NY			1:2
6	-2	San Jose, CA			1:2
7	-1	Hartford, CT			1:2
8	6	Oklahoma City, OK			1:3
9	2	Austin, TX			1:3
10	2	Boston, MA			1:3
11	6	New Orleans, LA			1:3
12	4	San Antonio, TX			1:3
13	-5	Seattle, WA			1:3
14	-4	Denver, CO			1:3
15	-2	San Francisco, CA			1:3
16	7	Pittsburgh, PA			1:4
17	10	Virginia Beach, VA			1:4
18	4	Richmond, VA			1:4
19	-16	Milwaukee, WI			1:4
20	10	Cincinnati, OH			1:4
21		Philadelphia, PA			1:4
22	2	Kansas City, MO			1:4
23	-8	Phoenix, AZ			1:4
24	-4	Dallas, TX			1:5
25	-7	Houston, TX			1:5
26		Columbus, OH			1:5
27	14	Memphis, TN			1:5
28	1	Indianapolis, IN			1:5
29	9	Louisville, KY			1:5
30	3	Charlotte, NC			1:5
31	-3	San Diego, CA			1:5
32	-1	Cleveland, OH			1:5
33	-1	Nashville, TN			1:5
34	-15	St. Paul, MN			1:5
35		Providence, RI			1:5
36	1	Tampa, FL			1:5
37	-3	Atlanta, GA			1:5
38	-13	Birmingham, AL			1:5
39	7	Las Vegas, NV			1:5
40	-1	St. Louis, MO			1:6
41	2	Buffalo, NY			1:6
42	-6	Orlando, FL			1:6
43	-1	Sacramento, CA			1:6
44	-4	Rochester, NY			1:6
45		Chicago, IL			1:7
46	-2	Portland, OR			1:7
47	1	Los Angeles, CA			1:8
48	-1	Riverside, CA			1:9
49		Miami, FL			1:10
50		Detroit, MI			1:18