The job market is a nightmare.
A recent analysis of the best U.S. cities for jobs in 2025 places Michigan’s largest city near the bottom of the list. WalletHub, a personal finance website, examined over 180 cities based on 31 key indicators of job market health, including factors like job availability, employment growth, and average starting salary.
The analysis ranked 182 cities overall, factoring in job market strength and socio-economic conditions, with Detroit performing poorly across the board. The city placed 181st out of 182, just above Memphis, Tennessee, and ranked 176th for job market strength and 178th for socio-economic factors.
WalletHub’s job market assessment took into account factors such as job opportunities, growth, starting pay, unemployment rates, job security, and worker satisfaction. Memphis ranked the worst in this area, followed by Detroit, San Bernardino, California, and several other cities. Detroit’s high unemployment rate is a reflection of broader challenges facing Michigan under Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s leadership, with an additional 36,000 people in the state becoming unemployed over the past year, marking a 17.3% increase since November 2023.
