Juju.com is out with its latest job-search difficulty rankings, based on a measure of online help-wanted ads held up against local unemployment. Washington D.C. and San Jose are tied for the easiest place in the country to find a job, according to this list, with one job opening for every 1.7 unemployed people. Baltimore is No. 3, with a job for every 2.4 unemployed people.
Other cities ranking near the top are New York, Hartford and Salt Lake City. Detroit, St. Louis and Miami are at the bottom of the 50-city list, each with more than 10 unemployed persons per online advertised job opening. Of course these kinds of rankings are imperfect. Even though the folks who compile these claim to eliminate duplicate help-wanted ads, I suspect some double counting is going on. And highly-wired towns like Baltimore and San Jose are going to have a higher portion of help-wanted ads online, anyway. Still, you'd rather be looking for a job in Baltimore than in Las Vegas, also with more than 10 unemployed people per job in the list.