If you've just graduated or are graduating soon and are looking for a place to jump-start your career, some states offer more in the way of job markets and affordable living. Scholaroo attempts to flesh out which US states are the best for today's young professionals, using nearly three dozen metrics in main six categories: job market and work conditions; affordability; crime and safety; workplace diversity, which covers everything from gender and racial wage gaps to state anti-discrimination laws against LGBTQ+ workers; health, including the rate of local doctors, mental stress, and sleep issues; and leisure, which looks at the number of gyms, museums, and bars per capita. Here, the top and bottom 10:
Best states
- Massachusetts (No. 1 in "Health," "Job Market/Work Conditions" categories)
- Rhode Island (No. 1 in "Leisure" category)
- New Hampshire (No. 1 in "Affordability" category)
- Maryland
- Connecticut
- Vermont (No. 1 in "Workplace Diversity" category)
- Washington
- Minnesota
- New Jersey
- Oregon
Worst states - Texas
- Tennessee
- Arkansas
- Kentucky
- South Carolina
- Oklahoma
- Louisiana
- Alabama (last in "Health" category")
- Mississippi (last in "Job Market/Work Conditions," "Workplace Diversity" categories)
- West Virginia
Check out how other states look for young professionals
here. (
These are the 10 best US cities if you're looking to start a career.)