A publicist for BusinessWeek passes along the news that in their latest compilation of “Best and Worst Cities For Your Job,” Houston gets the most mentions.
The accompanying article reflects on some of Houston’s strengths:
Only a few years ago, Houston was reeling. The implosion of Enron in 2001 had sandbagged the local economy, and the mood was grim. But that seems like a long time ago now. The explosion in energy costs has boosted the city’s oil- and natural gas-fed economy, which is home to ExxonMobil (XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA), as well as Waste Management (WMI), KBR (KBR), and many more. Job seekers in all sorts of careers have started streaming into Houston, where the unemployment rate was 3.8% in April, the lowest level in eight years, and where the job growth rate was 2.8%.
Businessweek.com worked with Seattle’s Payscale.com to determine where the best and worst cities are for 20 common careers and found that–when it comes to earning a comfortable living–Houston it [sic] at or near the top for most jobs, from human resources manager to graphic designer. We adjusted the median compensation for jobs in each of the top 25 big-city metros for cost of living. Houston, Dallas, and Charlotte, N.C., rose to the top for many of the jobs because they’re affordable cities with competitive salaries. New York, San Francisco, Washington, Los Angeles, and Boston, which have some of the highest salaries, sank to the bottom because residents there pay through the nose for real estate, parking, groceries, and almost everything else.
[snip]
Barton Smith, a professor of economics at the University of Houston who summers in Colorado, towed his favorite 1987 Dodge Colt Vista station wagon back to Houston one year because it would have cost him more than twice as much to replace the engine in Colorado, he said.
Housing Is a Crucial Cost“The real wages in Houston adjusted for cost-of-living differences are relatively high because cost of living is low,” Smith said. “It’s not just housing, but housing gets a lot of attention.”
People way outside of Houston are starting to catch on to its strengths, even as some less enlightened locals continue the hot pursuit of world-classness via trinkets.
