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CNBC
2 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
The 10 worst U.S. cities for jobs and earning potential, according to new report
While fast-growing cities like Raleigh and Nashville boast thriving job markets and high earnings, other major U.S. cities are struggling with low employment and declining wages. Checkr ranked the 100 largest U.S. cities based on employment opportunity and earning potential, using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US Census Bureau, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Each city's employment opportunity score is based on its unemployment rate, labor force growth, labor force size and percentage of jobs open. The earning potential score is sourced from the city's real per capita personal income, 10-year income growth and the percentage of households earning more than $200,000. According to Sam Radbil, research and content strategist at Checkr, the lowest-ranked cities on the list face a variety of economic challenges, including slow job growth, overreliance on declining industries, low median wages and high unemployment and poverty rates. Though some of these cities may offer a more affordable cost of living, they often suffer from "stagnant" employment and draw in few new businesses, he says. These 10 U.S. cities scored the lowest for job opportunities and earning potential, according to Checkr. Bakersfield, Scranton and McAllen had particularly low scores on Checkr's employment opportunity metric, Radbil says. One major factor is a lack of high-growth industries. Bakersfield and Fresno are largely reliant on the agriculture and energy sectors, Radbil says, while Rust Belt cities like Scranton and Rochester are still suffering from the effects of industrial and manufacturing declines. According to Radbil, the above industries also tend to require on-site work, which limits opportunities for remote workers. Even in cities with more employment opportunities, a better job market doesn't guarantee higher earnings. "While jobs are difficult to find, it's even more difficult to get paid the national average," he says. Unemployment is another important concern: of the 10 cities listed by Checkr, only Rochester had an unemployment rate below the national average of 4.2%. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bakersfield and Fresno metro areas have two of the highest unemployment rates in the country, at 9.6% and 8.5%, respectively. McAllen and Jackson fare little better, with unemployment rates of 6.4% and 6.2% each. Overall, these cities struggle to attract and retain talent, Radbil says. "There's not a ton of new jobs being generated, and that can always limit the opportunity for a city to grow," he says.
Chicago Tribune
4 days ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Editorial: After a heartbreaking loss, resilience now plays in Peoria
Did you hear about the $2 billion microchip plant scheduled to break ground later this year in Peoria? Just one catch: That new chip plant is slated to be built in Peoria, . Peoria, Illinois, came close to winning a similar game-changing investment when Caterpillar unveiled plans in 2015 for a massive downtown headquarters complex. Those plans got scrapped just two years later. Today, the heavy-equipment maker that defined Peoria for decades is celebrating its 100th anniversary at its new home base outside Dallas. Peoria has had its share of disappointments, and the local economy is under pressure from the slow growth that characterizes so much of Illinois. But this longtime manufacturing hub along the Illinois River is proving to be resilient. It has mostly overcome the departure of Caterpillar's brass, retained its character as a city that makes things and doubled down as a regional medical center. Peoria is not the company town it used to be, but it has a future. And its survival holds lessons for other Rust Belt cities that have missed out on growth opportunities but made the most of reimagined downtowns, affordable housing and low-cost property for commercial development. Caterpillar remains a highly visible presence in Peoria. About 12,000 of its 112,900 global employees work in or around the city, and several thousand more work in Decatur and the Chicago area. The company operates manufacturing-related facilities in Peoria and conducts global research and development on the city's outskirts, most notably at its secluded Proving Ground, which the Tribune profiled last year. The Caterpillar Visitors Center is a prominent tourist attraction downtown. A movie about the company's history plays in a gigantic, three-story mining-truck-turned-theater. On a recent summer day, children were operating bulldozers and excavators on indoor simulators while 100th anniversary banners outside celebrated the 'past, present and future.' Anyone worried about Caterpillar's future in Illinois should have listened in 2011, when then-Chief Executive Douglas Oberhelman, a Peoria booster, aired a rare public complaint. Then-Gov. Pat Quinn had just signed legislation increasing Illinois' personal income tax from 3% to 5% and the corporate tax from 4.8% to 7%. Oberhelman warned Quinn that other states were urging the company to relocate. 'I have to do what's right for Caterpillar when making decisions about where to invest. The direction that this state is headed in is not favorable to business, and I'd like to work with you to change that.' Deaf to business reality like many of Illinois' Democratic leaders before and since, Quinn shrugged off the warning, saying Caterpillar wasn't going anywhere: 'I don't think we should get in a panic at all.' Had Quinn indeed panicked, who knows if Caterpillar would still be based in Peoria. As it was, Oberhelman came through anyway, promising in 2015 that the company would stay, despite the unfavorable business climate. He unveiled a $1 billion plan for a refreshed Peoria headquarters. But Oberhelman was nearing retirement, and his presumed heir apparent, also a Peoria booster, reportedly got sick. The next CEO had no special allegiance to Cat's hometown and scrapped the headquarters plan. The corner office, with its clout and prestige, moved for a few years to north suburban Deerfield, then on to Irving, Texas, in 2022. Nice going, Illinois. While Peoria would never be the same, it wasn't helpless. One of the city's biggest strengths is its skilled workforce. And despite Illinois' steep taxes, punishing workers' compensation costs and pro-labor political agenda, Peoria remains relatively affordable. Today, spacious warehouses and industrial buildings go for a fraction of the cost they would command in the Chicago area, and median home-for-sale prices run about $160,000, less than half the median price in Chicago. Peoria retains some of the same attributes that lured Caterpillar to it in the first place, including a central location, varied transportation options and ready-made industrial infrastructure. At 3.9% as of June, the Peoria metropolitan area's unemployment rate is better than the statewide average of 4.5%. While manufacturing has shed jobs, as in much of the U.S., health care and construction have added employment. The city's fortunes today rest as much with Peoria-based OSF HealthCare and the sprawling Carle Health medical center as with the world's leading maker of mining and earthmoving equipment. Next time a business leader as pro-Illinois as Oberhelman tries to tell the truth to the governor — and everyone else, for that matter — Illinois needs to listen
Washington Post
28-07-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
The tough task of selling Trump's ‘Big Beautiful Bill' falls to JD Vance
CANTON, Ohio — Vice President JD Vance on Monday brought his fight to shape the president's signature tax-and-border bill in the eyes of a skeptical public to friendly terrain, making his second pitch this month to workers in a Rust Belt state that the massive, unpopular policy package is a win for working Americans.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Vance heads to Rust Belt city to kick off administration's megalaw messaging effort
The White House's effort to sell its signature legislation to America begins in full on Wednesday with Vice President JD Vance headed to northeastern Pennsylvania to tout the law's tax cuts and other economic benefits. It's the start of what is expected to be a sustained defense of the contentious legislation ahead of the fast-approaching midterms in which Democrats are eager to weaponize the law's least popular provisions to tarnish Republicans. The rally, the White House's first major event highlighting the 'One Big, Beautiful Bill' since Trump signed it on Independence Day, will be held at a manufacturing facility in West Pittston — a Rust Belt city that ousted its longtime Democratic congressman and helped deliver the commonwealth for Trump last year. It's what a White House official described as the 'tip of the spear' in the administration's efforts to highlight the politically popular pieces of the 'OBBB.' The official, granted anonymity to describe internal strategy, said the White House is working on plans to deploy many messengers — including Cabinet secretaries — over the coming months in a sustained, government-wide effort to share the 'wins' in the law. The legislation has 'something for everyone,' and the messaging will reflect the audience, the official added. In Pennsylvania, Vance and Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler will attempt to sell the law to working-class voters whose abandonment of the Democratic party helped put Trump back in the White House with a GOP majority on the Hill. Vance plans to emphasize how the law's populist economic policy provisions will bolster the working class, including through eliminating taxes on tips and overtime and by incentivizing U.S. production, according to a person familiar with his plans granted anonymity to share them. The person added that Pennsylvania was chosen as the first rally because it's 'a working-class state' where Trump and Vance's 'closing campaign pitch was made.' Vance, ahead of the final vote, focused on the bill's benefits to border enforcement, saying on social media that 'everything else' in the bill was 'immaterial compared to the [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] money and immigration enforcement provisions.' But as Democrats have homed in on the legislation's cuts to Medicaid, which they say is a betrayal of Trump's promise to protect the working class voters who elected him, Republicans are keen to point out the law's more popular, and populist, benefits. The person familiar with Vance's remarks noted that the vice president is still expected to highlight how the law is 'permanently fixing the Biden border crisis with the ICE funding boost and border wall funds.' Trump has mostly touted the legislation as 'the biggest tax cut in the history of our country' while slamming Democrats for not voting on it — and name-dropping the handful of Republicans who spurned him. 'We had the most successful economy in the history of the country during my first term and we passed a bill — but that bill honestly, as good as it was, was nothing compared to this one,' Trump said Tuesday in Pittsburgh. He urged Republicans to talk about the legislation's specifics. 'I say to people, Republicans, or anybody, explain the bill, because it's so big and so good,' he said on Saturday on Fox News. 'The Democrats, they only do one thing good, and that's complain, and they say it's going to cause death, and this and that, they don't mean it, it's a sound bite.' Vance's rally is in one of the purplest areas in the country: Pennsylvania's eighth congressional district, where Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan narrowly unseated Democratic incumbent Matt Cartwright in November. It's also only about a dozen miles from Scranton, Joe Biden's hometown, which the former Democratic president often invoked to bolster his working-class background. 'Democrats in that part of the state are definitely working-class voters, and they're the quintessential type of voters that have come over to Trump over the past few cycles,' said Joshua Novotney, a veteran Republican strategist in Pennsylvania. Vance is 'just trying to continue to message to them and make sure that they continue to vote that way and understand that the bill is not going to hurt them.' But polling shows voters largely disapprove of the law — and the party in the White House tends to lose vulnerable seats during the midterms, especially when the opposing party coalesces its messaging around contentious legislation. 'The Tea Party movement used Obamacare as a way to rally forces against Democrats who voted for it, and, in fact, against Democrats who didn't vote for it. Democrats this time will use the BBB probably in the same way,' said former Rep. Chris Carney, a Democrat who represented a Pennsylvania swing district until he was voted out in 2010 following his vote for the Affordable Care Act. Novotney admitted it could be 'tough' for Bresnahan to secure re-election next year and that Wednesday's rally could be an attempt to 'solidify those voters.' Bresnahan said he plans to follow the president's advice running for reelection 'on the accomplishments that are inside of this bill,' including the elimination of taxes on tips and overtime, an expanded child tax credit and benefits for manufacturing and small businesses. He noted that the White House had chosen a family-owned manufacturing facility for the rally because places like that form 'the backbone of America.' Bresnahan said he had run in part on securing the southern border, adding, 'when you're talking a bill of this magnitude, national security and the border had to be a part of these conversations.' And for Vance, a potential presidential candidate in 2028, these counties could prove decisive to his political fortunes. 'It's a great opportunity for him, and a showcase for him, and that never hurts,' said Charlie Gerow, a Pennsylvania-based veteran Republican strategist. 'These opportunities through the years will build his brand and build his awareness, and all the things that you need to launch a presidential campaign.'
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The 10 most affordable and most expensive US cities to buy a house
For many people, buying a house is simply out of reach today. Housing costs have reached record highs, pricing buyers out and leaving more homes on the market than there have been in years. The data backs this up: Nationwide, just 35% of homes are affordable to the average homebuyer — down from 60% in 2022. Affordability has dropped since the pandemic because house prices and mortgage rates rose in tandem. Both remain elevated due to chronic underbuilding and broad economic uncertainty. But trends vary widely by market: In some cities, homes sell within a week for well above asking; in others, they typically sit for two months or longer. Regardless, with homeownership increasingly out of reach, more Americans are instead turning to renting — including six-figure earners in cities like San Francisco and Orlando. So where can buyers and sellers find the best deals? Redfin Real Estate ranked the 10 cheapest and 10 most expensive housing markets in the U.S., based on median home prices and local incomes. If you're looking for an affordable house, start your search in the Rust Belt. Cities like Detroit, St. Louis, and Pittsburgh top the list of the cheapest places to buy a house in the U.S. Around two-thirds of homes in these metros are affordable for households earning the median income — a stark contrast to cities like San Francisco, where the share of affordable homes is in the single digits. Home prices in the Rust Belt are roughly 50% lower than the national median, due in part to decades of population loss and disinvestment that kept prices low. But that's starting to change. Affordable prices and renewed investment are drawing buyers back, supercharging local housing markets and pushing prices up across the region. In Rochester, for instance, house prices have increased by $27,000 in the past year — nine times the national increase. Today, seven of the 10 cheapest housing markets in the country are in the Rust Belt, but that affordability edge may shrink unless local incomes rise to match prices. Meanwhile, pandemic boomtowns that saw prices soar between 2020 and 2022 are now seeing the sharpest declines. If you're buying a house in California, expect to pay a premium. The state is home to the six most expensive U.S. markets — including San Francisco, San Jose, and Anaheim — where prices top $1 million. Los Angeles is the least affordable city in the nation to buy a house, where just 1% of homes are affordable to locals. Statewide, the typical house in California sells for $860,000 – $100,000 more than second-place Hawaii. Even with some of the highest average wages in the nation, Golden State residents struggle to afford housing. Still, some markets are seeing signs of demand. San Francisco and San Jose — the most expensive metros in the country — saw among the most homebuyer competition earlier this year. But overall, high prices and limited affordability will likely keep many consumers on the sidelines. Not every expensive market tells the same story. Cities like Boise and Tacoma also rank among the least affordable, but not because house prices are sky-high. Instead, they're unaffordable because local incomes are relatively low. True affordability happens when housing costs align with what people earn. High home prices have kept a growing number of people out of the housing market, but relief is coming. With so few active buyers, sellers are now sitting on nearly $700 billion of unsold homes, many of which take over a month to sell. This growing supply and demand imbalance is expected to push prices down by 1% by the end of the year, which could help some buyers reenter the market as wages rise. Still, affordability could dip further in some metros in the coming years, especially those with the largest gaps between prices and wages. A recent study found that Montana and California are expected to have wider affordability gaps by 2030. If you're a buyer or seller trying to navigate today's market, there are four things to keep in mind: Listings are rising Prices are easing Buyers are cautious Markets vary widely Buyers should take their time and negotiate, and sellers should price strategically and be open to concessions. Connect with a great agent who can educate you about your local market, like whether it's a buyer's or seller's market. No matter if you live in an affordable or expensive city, it's still possible to buy or sell with confidence. Rankings are based on housing affordability among the 91 largest U.S. metropolitan areas ('cities'). Data comes from Redfin through May 2025. Redfin ranked cities on the share of home listings that were affordable to someone making the local median income. A home was considered 'affordable' if its corresponding monthly payment was no more than 30% of median monthly earnings, assuming a 20% down payment, typical taxes and fees, and a 30-year mortgage. This story was produced by Redfin Real Estate and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. Sign in to access your portfolio
