These Are The 10 Best Cities For Designers

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Whether you’re just starting out your career, or looking to make a move, it can be important to know what part of the country offers the best chance for your long term career prospects. And for a very common profession like Designers, the regional differences can have a big impact on your salary and career options.

To help you make the best decision possible, we at Zippia wanted to look at the cities that offer designers the most for their career. These are the cities across the US where designers get paid well, relative to the cost of living, and jobs are plentiful.

So we did what we do best and dove into the numbers from the BLS to figure out which cities have the best opportunities for designers.The result is this list of the best cities designers:

So there you have it — Portsmouth is the best city when it comes to being a designer.

And where should you consider avoiding if you’re a designer? That would be Urban Honolulu.

Read on to see how we completed our research on the best cities for designers and for more on the top ten cities.

How we determined the best cities to be a designers?

Here at Zippia, we talk to a lot of people of all different backgrounds looking for jobs. Our research has concluded that there are two common things people want in a job:

Availability of jobs
Pay

So in order to find out the best cities for designers in America we needed to figure out where the jobs are and how well designers get paid. This led to the following criteria taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s Occupational Employment Statistics for 2015:

Location quotient. A measure of how common a job is a given city.
Average annual salary.
Average annual salary for entry level work.

To make all the salary numbers more apples to apples across cities, we compared the salary data relative to the state’s cost of living.

This left us with enough data for 31 metro areas across the country. We then took the primary area of the metro and labeled that the ‘city’ for this analysis. So, for example, “Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA NECTA Division” became simply Boston.

In order to develop an overall ranking, we ranked each city for each criteria from 1 to 31 where 1 was the best.

We then averaged all the rankings for a city into a Job Score with the city having the lowest overall Job Score earning the distinction of being the best city for designers in America.

So without further ado, let’s get into just what made each city so great for designers.

1. Portsmouth, NH

Total Jobs: 60
Average Annual Salary: $77,830
Average Entry Level Salary: $43,340
Location Quotient: 4.87

2. Portland, ME

Total Jobs: 70
Average Annual Salary: $71,070
Average Entry Level Salary: $40,390
Location Quotient: 2.43

3. Boston, MA

Total Jobs: 240
Average Annual Salary: $90,080
Average Entry Level Salary: $45,640
Location Quotient: 1.0

4. New York, NY

Total Jobs: 7,150
Average Annual Salary: $79,370
Average Entry Level Salary: $38,650
Location Quotient: 8.0

5. Oakland, CA

Total Jobs: 230
Average Annual Salary: $79,060
Average Entry Level Salary: $39,880
Location Quotient: 1.56

6. Milwaukee, WI

Total Jobs: 90
Average Annual Salary: $76,270
Average Entry Level Salary: $36,250
Location Quotient: 0.81

7. Boulder, CO

Total Jobs: 60
Average Annual Salary: $61,410
Average Entry Level Salary: $41,000
Location Quotient: 2.65

8. Philadelphia, PA

Total Jobs: 150
Average Annual Salary: $59,500
Average Entry Level Salary: $38,100
Location Quotient: 1.27

9. St. Louis, MO

Total Jobs: 70
Average Annual Salary: $96,250
Average Entry Level Salary: $33,940
Location Quotient: 0.39

10. Oxnard, CA

Total Jobs: 50
Average Annual Salary: $79,480
Average Entry Level Salary: $36,460
Location Quotient: 1.26

And that’s our list of the best cities for designers

If you’re looking to start out your career as a designer these are the cities that should be at the top of your list. You’ll find high pay, available jobs, and chances for career advancement.

If you’re curious, here are the worst cities to be a designer in America:

Detailed List Of The Best Cities For Designers

Rank	State	Average Salary	Entry Level Salary	# Of People
1	Portsmouth, NH	$77,830	$43,340	60
2	Portland, ME	$71,070	$40,390	70
3	Boston, MA	$90,080	$45,640	240
4	New York, NY	$79,370	$38,650	7,150
5	Oakland, CA	$79,060	$39,880	230
6	Milwaukee, WI	$76,270	$36,250	90
7	Boulder, CO	$61,410	$41,000	60
8	Philadelphia, PA	$59,500	$38,100	150
9	St. Louis, MO	$96,250	$33,940	70
10	Oxnard, CA	$79,480	$36,460	50
11	Cincinnati, OH	$61,770	$36,510	60
12	Los Angeles, CA	$76,200	$31,340	4,020
13	Anaheim, CA	$66,060	$32,080	600
14	Dallas, TX	$58,340	$35,290	190
15	Houston, TX	$65,930	$35,550	50
16	West Palm Beach, FL	$79,800	$29,170	30
17	San Diego, CA	$70,190	$28,110	330
18	Kansas City, MO	$56,270	$18,730	240
19	Salt Lake City, UT	$60,110	$28,060	50
20	Portland, OR	$58,450	$29,300	130
21	Allentown, PA	$48,910	$32,520	40
22	Nassau County, NY	$65,470	$23,210	330
23	Orlando, FL	$53,960	$33,370	90
24	Tampa, FL	$53,450	$34,160	80
25	Newark, NJ	$78,770	$18,780	40
26	Charlotte, NC	$53,610	$34,340	30
27	Denver, CO	$56,820	$28,190	120
28	Riverside, CA	$48,550	$25,450	180
29	Austin, TX	$55,190	$23,070	50
30	Minneapolis, MN	$48,300	$31,800	90
31	Urban Honolulu, HI	$45,560	$30,420	40

Never miss an opportunity that’s right for you.

Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

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