To Detect Job Magnets, Follow Job Opportunity Scorecards

Oddly, through one lens, one of the fast-growing and increasingly "open" economy's biggest challenges is finding people to fill one of America's swelling stream of job openings.

Through another, that's not the reality. Rather, if you're looking for a job, it's not so easy to land one that matches up to skills, experience, salary needs, and other criteria important ones on the hunt.

Current unemployment rates pushing 6% mean mismatches are everywhere – exacerbated by supply chain disruption, which has thrown a wrench into operational and headcount investment while channels are blocked – which means that while many industries are struggling with labor shortages, many people are struggling to find suitable employment opportunity.

Annually, financial site WalletHub runs 35 economic key performance indicators through an algorithm that, it says, enable it to score the 50 states by how well they align with job searchers' employment opportunity.

Here's how the 2021 measures roll up, first from city-level analysis, to a Top 10 rankings for best states to find a job.

Of course, WalletHub's algorithm is not sacrosanct, nor is it the only rankings of states for employment prospectors.

Best College Reviews, here, claims that its analysis of local economic inputs at a state level reveal a materially different top 10 list for what it calls "future job growth."

1. North Dakota
2. Texas
3. Florida
4. New York
5. Nebraska
6. Arizona
7. South Dakota
8. Utah
9. Washington
10. Pennsylvania

Join the conversation