Atlanta ranks high for new college grads, report says

Atlanta ranks high for new college grads, report says
August 31, 2011
By Joel Provano
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

More than one out of 10 people in metro Atlanta is unemployed, but it's not a bad place to live if you're a recent college graduate, according to a new report.

Atlanta was ranked the ninth-best city in the U.S. for new grads on a list by Apartments.com and CareerRookie.com, which compiled the rankings based on several factors, including the inventory of jobs requiring less than one year of experience and the cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment.

CareerBulder.com, which owns CareerRookie.com, reported that 46 percent of employers nationwide are planning to hire recent college grads this year. That's up 2 percent over last year.

Atlanta ranked second -- behind Cleveland -- as the cheapest place for a one-bedroom apartment with an average monthly rent of $813.

The best place to live for recent college graduates, according to the report, was Hartford-New Haven, Conn.; it was followed by Cleveland, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Atlanta and St. Louis.

The rankings belie the fact that unemployment in Georgia, at 10.1 percent, was a full point higher than the national average in July, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Metro Atlanta's rate was slightly higher, at 10.4 percent.

Atlanta has lost 200,000 jobs since the recession began in 2007. And a recent report prepared for the U.S. Conference of Mayors didn't offer much reason for optimism: It said the region won't return to pre-recession employment levels for at least three more years, slower than what's projected for comparable cities nationwide.