New college graduates hoping to move to New York City to further their career may be in for an unfortunate surprise.
TO study published by WalletHub earlier this week named the Big Apple the worst city to live in for those seeking entry-level jobs and affordable housing.
The study compared career opportunities and quality of life provided in more than 180 U.S. cities, including the 150 most populous cities in the country and at least two of the most populous cities in each of the 50 states.
The top two factors were then examined using 26 key metrics, ranging from entry-level job availability to average monthly starting salary and housing affordability.
A study released by WalletHub earlier this week named the Big Apple the worst city to live in for those seeking entry-level jobs and quality of life.
According to the study’s findings, New York City ranked 182nd after scoring the lowest across all 26 metrics: a mere 33.14.
The ‘City of Dreams’, where stars such as Frank Sinatra and Jay-Z made it big, is now considered the place with the fewest entry-level jobs per 100,000 professionals aged 16 and over in 2024.
New York has also been named the worst place in the country to find affordable housing.
However, the Big Apple was able to redeem itself in some places after ranking 171st for quality of life.
New York City’s unemployment rate was 5.4 percent in December 2023, up 0.1 percent from November and up 0.3 percent from December 2022.
The ranking comes three months after a 26-year-old Brooklyn woman went viral by telling her TikTok followers that despite having two degrees and speaking three languages, she still couldn’t find a minimum wage job in the city.
Lohanny Santos uploaded a video to TikTok of her crying while holding a stack of resumes.
“This is the most humbled I’ve ever felt in my life,” he said, telling viewers that he was trying to meet potential employers in person to ask them for a job, but so far has been unsuccessful.
He added: “Honestly, it’s a little embarrassing because I’m literally applying for minimum wage jobs and some of them are like, ‘We’re not hiring.’ […] This is not what I expected.’
Santos, who graduated from Pace University with a bachelor’s degree in communications and a bachelor’s degree in acting, said she speaks three languages and seems devastated after failing to find a minimum wage job that would pay her $16 an hour in New York.
Lohanny Santos (pictured), 26, from Brooklyn, uploaded a video of herself crying while holding a stack of resumes to TikTok.
“This sucks,” she added as she wiped away the tears that were streaming down her face. “I just want to be a TikToker if I’m being that honest with you, but I can’t fool myself anymore… Like I literally need to make money so I’m just going to keep trying.”
Santos said he went to several coffee shops to give them his resume, just as he did when he was 16 and looking for a job.
The only job Santos said he got, which was at a coffee shop, would have required 18 hours of unpaid training.
Santos, who said she grew up between Brazil and New Jersey, is not the only one who cannot find work in New York right now, as data from the New York State Department of Labor reveals that unemployment is rising.
New York City’s unemployment rate was 5.4 percent in December 2023, up 0.1 percent from November and up 0.3 percent from December 2022. The state’s rate in New York was 4.5 percent in December 2023.
In May 2023, it was revealed that rents in New York reached new all-time highs, with the median price of an apartment in Manhattan rising to a whopping $4,241.
Median rents for new rentals in Manhattan, Brooklyn and northwest Queens broke records in April, as people returned to the city in droves in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A real estate report, prepared by appraiser Miller Samuel and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate, confirms what many New Yorkers have been complaining on social media for weeks: that rents are “too high.”
According to the report, a typical apartment in Manhattan was 8.1 percent more expensive in 2023 than in 2022.
The typical Manhattan apartment was 8.1 percent more expensive in 2023 than in 2022
Brooklyn’s median rent of $3,500 rose nearly 15 percent from last year, researchers said.
The median in the section of Queens that includes Astoria and Long Island City rose nearly 13 percent from a year ago to $3,525.
WalletHub’s 2024 study rankings were determined with the help of data collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Indeed.com, and Glassdoor.
The study named Atlanta, Georgia, the number one city to live and work, with a score of 65.84, closely followed by Orlando, Florida, with a score of 65.02, and Salt Lake City, Utah, with a score of 62.38.
