Tampa Bay scores No. 2 ranking for national labor market among college grads

At a time when college graduates may struggle to find their first job, a new study from payroll provider ADP has named the Tampa Bay area the second best labor market in the U.S. for recent college graduates. 

That’s a major improvement for the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area in the annual ranking, which compares 53 of the largest metro areas in the country with at least 1 million residents. Driven by strong entry-level hiring in healthcare, financial services and technology, the region vaulted from last year’s ranking of No. 26. 

According to ADP, rankings are based in part on the hiring rate for individuals between the ages of 20 to 29 from January 2025 to January 2026. They also factor in median annual wages for the same age group for the year and overall cost of living based on federal data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. 

“Ultimately, we were looking for the best combination of pay, affordability, and opportunity,” the study says.

The Tampa Bay region’s hiring rate increased from 2.6% last year to 3.45% — one of the fastest increases in ADP’s sample. Median wages in the area were estimated to be $49,817, about mid-tier compared to other metro areas, and the nation-to-metro cost of living ratio was calculated at 0.99%. That means the cost of living in the region ranks close to the national average.

Tampa Bay is second only to Birmingham-Hoover, Alabama, which was deemed more affordable than all but two other metro areas, but offers an estimated annual wage of $59,004. San Jose, California ranked No. 3, with an increased hiring rate of 2.7% and estimated annual wage of $70,708.

Other Florida metros aren’t as favorable for recent graduates, according to the ADP ranking. Orlando, Jacksonville and Miami all fell in the rankings to the No. 63, No. 21 and No. 35, respectively. However, six of ADP’s top 10 metro areas for college graduates were in the South: including Raleigh, North Carolina; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Nashville and Charlotte, North Carolina. 

At the bottom of the rankings were Salt Lake City, Utah and California’s Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario region, both of which returned to the bottom four.