RALEIGH – The Triangle jumped two spots in an annual rankings report conducted by LinkedIn that focuses on the regions of the country where career opportunity is strongest, finishing third this year.
Charlotte finished 10th, also jumping two spots from the prior report.
Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill trailed only Austin, Texas, and Seattle, Washington, according to the rankings report.
Raleigh fell in the rankings in the most recent “Tech Town” index compiled by CompTIA, and each of Raleigh and Durham’s metropolitan statistical areas ranked in the top seven MSAs in NC TECH’s first annual “Tech Innovation Index.”
Job growth is strong in many regions across the state of North Carolina, a recent report found, and the job market is still a strong one for workers as employers are seeking to hire thousands of workers in the Triangle and across the state.
Raleigh falls four spots – to 7th – in rankings of top ‘Tech Towns’
“Opportunity Cities”
The Triangle is considered an “opportunity magnet,” according to LinkedIn’s research team.
The research involved an analysis of the LinkedIn Economic Graph, which “analyzed thousands of job postings and member profiles to find where in the U.S. job openings are plentiful and lots of people are getting hired,” a LinkedIn news post reads.
LinkedIn image
The researchers analyzed 2021’s job opportunities in 69 total U.S. regions. A blog post summarizing the research notes that this resulted in “a wide-ranging list of the locations where job postings are bountiful and lots of people are getting hired.”
According to LinkedIn, the calculations are adjusted to reflect the average count of LinkedIn members in each market, and the presence of remote workers in some regions may have an impact.
The Triangle outpaced Boston and San Francisco, which rounded out the top 5 ranked areas in the United States.
The rest of the top ten regions were Denver, Colorado, Nashville, Tennessee, Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Richmond, Virginia, followed by Charlotte.
Charlotte ranked highly in the study because it is an area “with strong finance and manufacturing sectors,” according to the LinkedIn blog post on the report.
Job seekers want opportunity, health protection – not just more money, report says
Which areas didn’t show up
“It’s equally striking to see which metro areas don’t appear in the top 15,” the LinkedIn blog post reads.
That includes New York City, which only ranked 29th. In this region, “economy was hit hard in the early months of the pandemic, reflecting both job losses and many residents’ decision to move their laptops — and their portable jobs — to cheaper and more spacious locations,” the report reads. “While New York has rebounded significantly in the past year, it’s not yet an opportunity magnet,” the report concludes.
The bottom-ranked cities were Las Vegas, Nevada, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Little Rock, Arkansas.
