St. Louis Is One of the 20 Hottest Job Markets in the U.S., WSJ Says

St. Louis is booming. Yes, really!

That's according to no less than the Wall Street Journal, which recently compiled a list of the 20 hottest job markets in the U.S. — and placed St. Louis at No. 18. The Gateway City is just behind Charlotte and Grand Rapids, Michigan, and just ahead of Houston and Las Vegas.

And rest assured, this is not one of those crappy clickbait lists. The WSJ says it worked with Moody’s Analytics to assess 380 metro areas and seek out the strongest labor markets based on five factors: "the unemployment rate, the labor-force participation rate, changes to employment levels, the size of the labor force and wages."

St. Louis was considered as part of the large market category, with metro areas of more than 1 million residents. And not only did we crush the blighted Rust Belt cities we're often placed with (Detroit was No. 43, Cleveland No. 50), but we also beat Atlanta (No. 24), Denver (No. 25) and New York City (No. 47). Chicago? They're No. 53, just behind Pittsburgh and Los Angeles. Ouch!

Overall, the daily writes, "Cities with strong job markets were those well-positioned as affordable alternatives to the traditional tech and financial hubs."

You can see the Journal's ranking of the top 20 hottest job markets below:

Worth noting: The highest ranked Midwestern metro was Kansas City, clocking in at No. 12. Who knew Missouri had it going on in 2024?


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