Raleigh Ranks the #1 Metro for New College Grads

Raleigh claimed the top spot for a second year in a row in ADP’s analysis of best cities for new college grads.

Researchers crunched public cost-of-living data and ADP payroll data for more than five million U.S. workers in their 20s to rank 55 metro areas on three metrics: affordability, wages and hiring activity. They then weighed hiring rates for jobs that typically require a degree against affordability-adjusted wages in each city to devise a single, overall ranking.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Raleigh has a higher than usual concentration of technology, health and financial firms, coupled with a more affordable cost of living.

Raleigh, once again, topped the list of cities with the most promising prospects for recent graduates. As part of the Research Triangle, its economy is fueled by an ecosystem of research institutions, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University and other schools, plus science and technology companies.

“We’ve seen this stream of office projects over the last 18 months, and North Carolina State University and some of our private colleges are all supplying this great pipeline of workers,” says Kyle Touchstone, director of Raleigh Economic Development.

Red Hat and Cisco Systems are just two companies with Raleigh operations that have stepped up their recruiting of young professionals. The Research Triangle area accounted for nearly a third of Cisco’s overall university hiring, second only to Silicon Valley, over the past four fiscal years, says Scott McGuckin, vice president of talent acquisition.

Learn more about living and working in the Triangle at www.workinthetriangle.com.