With several interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve and the possibility of a looming recession combined with thousands of jobs recently added to the economy, the landscape of the job market in 2023 continues to be sporadically changing even as conditions slow.
However, some regions of the country are seeing stronger growth than others, according to The Wall Street Journal's annual job market analysis of 400 metropolitan areas. The publication's rankings were based on five factors: unemployment rate, labor-force participation rate, changes in employment levels, labor force size and wages.
A few notable changes from last year's findings include Nashville, Tenn., overtaking Austin, Texas, for first place; three California cities are in the bottom 15 this year; and New Orleans jumped from the bottom position last year, just barely making it out of the bottom 15 altogether at number 39.
Below are the 15 large cities with the strongest and weakest job markets in the U.S. in 2023 per the Journal's data. Note that the data does include ties. Smaller job market regions were ranked separately.
Strongest job markets
- Nashville, Tenn.
- Austin, Texas
- Jacksonville, Fla.
- Dallas
- Raleigh, N.C.
- Atlanta
- Orlando, Fla.
- Charlotte, N.C.
- Salt Lake City
- Miami
- Denver
- Tampa, Fla.
- Indianapolis
- San Jose, Calif.
- Minneapolis
Weakest job markets
- Pittsburgh
- Memphis, Tenn.
- New York City
- Tucson, Ariz.
- Rochester, N.Y.
- Detroit
- Honolulu
- Los Angeles
- Cleveland
- Sacramento, Calif.
- Virginia Beach, Va.
- Providence, R.I.
- Buffalo, N.Y.
- Cincinnati
- Fresno, Calif.