ATLANTA — A recent study on the post-college job market for Americans found that Atlanta was the top city for recent graduates to kickstart their careers.
The study, from CoworkingCafe, found Atlanta had not only maintained its lead as the best place to start a career after graduating, but had extended it.
“Atlanta extends its lead at first place among large cities on broad-based gains in employment, benefits and affordability,” CoworkingCafe said.
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The study assigned its rankings based on the number of people in the area with bachelor’s degrees, the portion of jobs for recent graduates in the city, median graduate incomes, cost of living, employer-based health insurance coverage and more.
For the City of Atlanta, it’s one of three cities to make the top 10 in the southeast United States.
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Here is how CoworkingCafe said Atlanta did on the factors it ranked cities with.
- Population with BAs: 53%
- Jobs for recent grads: 7%
- Unemployment rate for ages 20-29: 4%
- Median graduate income: $81,155
- Employer-based health insurance overage: 68%
- Coworking spaces per 100,000 people: 24
- Leisure establishments per 100,000 people: 731
The study also said that the metro Atlanta area’s economy had added in 64,000 new residents between 2024 and 2025, while benefitting from a diversified base for logistics, health care, fintech and film production and the number of internet technology roles expected to grow by more than one-third by 2034.
Here’s the top 10 list:
- Atlanta
- San Francisco, Calif.
- Seattle, Wash.
- Washington/District of Columbia
- Minneapolis, Minn.
- Austin, Texas
- Denver, Colo.
- Boston, Mass.
- Tampa, Fla.
- Kansas City, Mo.
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