High-Paying Jobs Are Easiest To Secure in These 10 Cities Across the US — Here’s Why

According to the Monster 2024 Work Watch Report, an extraordinary 95% of American workers surveyed said they were “looking for or plan to look for a new job in 2024.” Citing the rising cost of living, burn out and the importance of flexible work hours, 83% of workers experienced a negative employment situation this year.  

Whatever the reason, finding a new or better job will be the main goal for many people this year. For all, finding work will predominantly depend on location.

According to AI and human-powered career platform Career.io, U.S. cities vary widely in availability of high-paying jobs. Looking at America’s 200 largest cities by population, plus the five largest cities in each state, Career.io came up with a long list of the most competitive cities, including top ranking hubs like Salt Lake City, Utah, St. Louis, Missouri, Denver, Colorado, San Jose, California, and Kansas City, KS.

Career.io found the most common highly paid — but not competitive — jobs are in health care and sales. The cities with the fewest applicants are more likely to be in low-density states focusing on agriculture, per the study. In general, however, you’ll have an easier time searching for the best paid jobs in smaller cities that have a higher share of lucrative job vacancies with low competition.

“The salaries of the high-paying jobs are relative to the median salaries in each state or city, so the competition rates are more reflective of a lack of candidates rather than it being a lower-paying market,” said Taylor Tomita, who works as a senior outreach specialist at NeoMam Studios, a creative marketing agency that works with Career.io.

Using Parkersburg, West Virginia, as an example, CNBC Make It explained that the least competitive cities don’t necessarily have less high-earning opportunities, they just receive significantly less applications. Parkersburg had 52 high-paying job listings at the time of the analysis, “but there were absolutely no applications submitted to these roles.” Tomita says.

Here are the cities with the least competition for highly-paid jobs, according to their average daily applicant per job stats and how much you can expect to make by landing a high-earning job in each:

• Population (Jul. 2022): 145,616
• Average daily applicant per job: 0.030

High-salary jobs pay $92,809 or more in Olathe.

• Population (Jul. 2022): 30,277
• Average daily applicant per job: 0.026

High-salary jobs pay $80,163 or more in Morgantown.

• Population (Jul. 2022): 256,187
• Average daily applicant per job: 0.026

High-salary jobs pay $66,269 or more in Laredo.

• Population (Jul. 2022): 33,416
• Average daily applicant per job: 0.025

High-salary jobs pay $81,702 or more in Denver.

• Population (Jul. 2022): 34,277
• Average daily applicant per job: 0.024

High-salary jobs pay $78,333 or more in Kearney.

• Population (per Census Bureau Jul. 2022 data): 52,513
• Average daily applicant per job: 0.007

High-salary jobs pay $83,574 or more in Grand Island.

• Population (Jul. 2022): 8,382
• Average daily applicant per job: 0.005

High-salary jobs pay $106,496 or more in Sitka.

• Population (Jul. 2022): 35,416
• Average daily applicant per job: 0.003

High-salary jobs pay $86,154 or more in Butte.

• Population (Jul. 2022): 110,951
• Average daily applicant per job: 0.001

High-salary jobs pay $83,200 or more in Nampa.

• Population (Jul. 2022): 29,193
• Average daily applicant per job: 0.000

High-salary jobs pay $72,051 or more in Parkersburg.