These six California cities are the most competitive for high-paying jobs

Cortlynn Stark, The Sum
·2 min read

Six California cities are among the top 20 most competitive in the U.S. for highly paid jobs.

That’s according to Career.io, which provides job search and career growth services. The company analyzed LinkedIn data to rank every state and the largest cities based on how many people were applying daily for local, high-paying jobs.

Career.io doubled the local average wage, using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, to define “highly paid” jobs. The company looked at the largest cities by population, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, and the largest five cities in each state.

Salt Lake City, Utah, was the most competitive market with 34.9 applicants applying daily for every highly paid job. Parkersburg, West Virginia, had the least competitive market of all the large cities. Career.io found zero applications in December.

In California, San Jose — with 29.6 applicants per day for every highly paid job — was the most competitive. Bakersfield, with just 0.24 applicants, was the least competitive.

San Francisco was the sixth most competitive with 24.1 applicants, followed by Santa Ana at 22.3 applicants. Los Angeles took eighth with 21.8 applicants. San Diego was 11th with 10.1 applicants. Riverside rounded out California’s top cities with 6.5 applicants.

Here’s the full top 20:

  1. Salt Lake City, Utah

  2. Saint Louis, Missouri

  3. Denver, Colorado

  4. San Jose

  5. Kansas City, Kansas

  6. San Francisco

  7. Santa Ana

  8. Los Angeles

  9. Jersey City, New Jersey

  10. New York, New York

  11. San Diego

  12. Roswell, New Mexico

  13. Seattle, Washington

  14. Boston, Massachusetts

  15. Las Vegas, Nevada

  16. Riverside

  17. Cincinnati, Ohio

  18. Miami, Florida

  19. Stamford, Connecticut

  20. Tampa, Florida

California was one of the most competitive states overall, Career.io found, with 15.2 daily applicants per high-paying job. Utah was the most competitive state with 22.6 applicants, followed by South Carolina (21.8), Missouri (19.2), Colorado (17.1), Kansas (16) and Hawaii (15.2).

How can you stand out?

Career.io recommended job hunters stay active on LinkedIn and go to events in their industry to network.

Make sure to optimize your resume.

You should research a potential employer so you can demonstrate in your resume and a potential interview why you want to work for them, according to Career.io.

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