Local students will graduate high school in the coming weeks and pursue college degrees and careers.
Employers plan to hire 14.7 percent more graduates from the Class of 2023 than the Class of 2022.
WalletHub released its report on 2023’s Best & Worst Places to Start a Career, and several cities in Virginia are on the list.
The personal finance website compared more than 180 U.S. cities based on 26 key indicators of career-friendliness. Data includes availability of entry-level jobs, average starting salary and housing affordability.
The best places to start a career are Atlanta, Orlando, Salt Lake City, Columbia, S.C. and Tampa.
Richmond is at no. 19, Washington, D.C. at no. 23, Virginia Beach is no. 92 and Norfolk no. 102. The 114th best place to start a career is Chesapeake, Virginia and Newport News is the 152nd best place out of 182 cities.
The worst places to start a career are New York, Gulfport Mississippi, Newark, New Jersey, Detroit and Santa Clarita, Calif.
The highest monthly average starting salary is $4,958 in Austin, Texas, which is 2.9 times higher than $1,685 per month in Juneau, Alaska.
Columbia, Md. has the highest median annual household income of $104,886, 3.1 times higher than in Detroit, the city with the lowest at $33,329.
Experts offered commentary on the biggest career mistakes that young people make.
“In the last several decades, due to a variety of factors, the notion of finding a position in a setting with potential and working one’s way up to more and more responsible positions has fallen quite out of favor, and switching jobs to another employer is now considered a reasonable approach in response to what might be considered a common skill and knowledge acquisition-based frustrations,” Allan Tasman, Emeritus Professor, Chair (1991-2015) of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Emeritus Schwab Endowed Chair in Social and Community Psychiatry at the University of Louisville, said. “This repeated transition of the workplace and the associated need to orient to a new setting, which often has its own set of policies and procedures is taxing and time-consuming. So rather than jumping ahead, advancement is often slowed. Try to have the patience to work through the often-unavoidable transition into a new environment with new responsibilities. Be a team player and do the best work you can in the assignment you have, which likely may not be the exact things you want to do throughout your career. But if you do a good job at what your assignment involves, someone will notice and you will have more opportunities at every stage.”
David Earnhardt, Associate Director for Employer Relations, Career Center, at the University of North Carolina Asheville, said the biggest mistake among youth is not sticking with a job.
“No first job will ever be what you think it is. But having some resilience and pushing through helps make sure you are moving on to the next role with clarity. Try to get as much out of the experience as you can. Ask questions, take a leadership role, and build networks. Even if you leave, you will have a much bigger skillset to lean on for a new role. I learned early on that it is much easier to find a new job when I had one, and I could much more articulately describe my interest in the new job if I was not feeling desperate for ‘anything’. I am not saying to work in a toxic environment, but if the job just is not what you thought, stick it out for at least a year…your new employer would like to see that too!” Earnhardt said.
Tasman said that the entry-level job market in 2023 will include changing availability. The technology sector was hot in the midst of the pandemic, so programs were focused on training high school and college graduates, but layoffs have happened in the technology sector.
“In the healthcare sector, there are shortages in nearly every profession and any part of the country, but essentially all entry-level clinical positions require post-HS or college training, and those programs are full and not expanding enough to meet new training needs,” Tasman said.
Warnings of a recession since the pandemic and high-profile layoffs have employers tightening their belts for entry-level positions, according to Earnhardt.
“I do not see that as an indication of a weak jobs market for entry-level employees though, or employees across the labor market if I am honest. The labor force participation rate is up, the unemployment rate is low, and there is upward pressure on wages. As of March 2023, there were still 9.5 million open positions in the US, and positions requiring a bachelor’s degree or lower make up more than 95 percent of occupations in the US. So, I remain quietly bullish on the entry-level jobs market for 2023,” Earnhardt said.
Sally Foster, Assistant Dean for Student Engagement and Director for the Center for Personal Development at Lewis Honors College and the University of Kentucky, said tips for building a long, successful career include steadily build a network by setting goals.
“Perhaps a new employee strives to have casual lunch or coffee conversations twice a month with coworkers in a variety of divisions within the company. From there, the new employee can begin to build a network within the industry by attending industry meetings or conferences. Utilize LinkedIn to engage with leaders within the field of work. Gaining work experience is an obvious marker of continuing to do good work, but having a powerful network is what makes upward mobility more achievable,” Foster said.
Earnhardt suggested finding mentors to grow from an entry-level position.
“I encourage students to seek out mentors that are not their direct supervisors, or even ones that are outside the organization to gain perspective on the inner workings of the organization they are in. This will also allow the mentor to bring their mentee over to their organization if there is a fit!” Earnhardt said.
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Rebecca Barnabi
