Report: Bay Area is good landing spot for college grads

While the cost of living is a major challenge, a new report says the Bay Area is an ideal place for college grads to land.

Researchers at CoworkingCafe looked at job opportunities, income levels, cost of living, lifestyle amenities and other metrics in order to find the best U.S. cities for recent grads to start their careers. For an easier overview,  scores were combined into three main groups by area of interest: employment, financial and lifestyle. To reflect a fair comparison, the cities were segmented into three population brackets: small, mid-sized and large.

Among the findings for the Bay Area:

• San Francisco took the second spot as one of the best large U.S. cities for recent grads to put down roots, scoring highest of all large cities in the three base metrics.
• San Francisco ranked #1 by median income for workers aged 25+ with a college education, just slightly below the six-figure mark ($99,929) and the city had the largest share of the young workers with employer-based health insurance (more than 76%).
• San Jose’s 8^th place among the large cities underscored Silicon Valley as a top destination for college grads.
• Sunnyvale ranked second overall among the nation’s mid-sized cities, where the $102,819 median income for BA holders and the nearly 83% employer-based health insurance coverage were unmatched among similar-sized cities. 
• Santa Clara was tops for grads seeking out small cities.  More than two-thirds of the city’s population held a college degree, which was matched by 11% of jobs being accessible for young college grads — a top-10 ranking stat. On the financial side, Santa Clara’s $108,152 median income was one of the most attractive in this bracket, and more than 80% of the young working population also had employer-based health insurance. Milpitas placed 7^th for small cities.

Read the full study and check the methodology section: https://www.coworkingcafe.com/blog/the-best-cities-for-the-class-of-23/.