Best Cities for Jobs in 2020

With the unemployment rate in the United States surpassing 14.7 percent, the worst since the Great Depression, it’s safe to assume securing employment may be at the forefront of many Americans’ minds — let alone the world — during the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Commissioned earlier in the year by FutureLearn, an online learning platform, a recent study determined the best cities for jobs in 2020, with a series of statistics regarding economics, government policies, quality of life and gender equality.

With a perfect score of 100 (more in-depth scoring methodology here), Singapore tops the list as the best city for jobs in 2020. Following Singapore, Copenhagen claims second place with 95.16; Helsinki follows with 90.5; Oslo takes fourth place with 89.14; and Dubai completes the top five with 85.18 points.

The United States doesn’t grace the list until eighth place, with San Francisco scoring 77.3. Another California city, Los Angeles takes 15th place with 68.22 points, ahead of New York City in 17th place with a score of 66.4. Back to California, San Diego is  in 21st place, scoring 64.36, ahead of Seattle’s 53.68 in 37th place. Much further down the list, Philadelphia takes 88th place with a score of 24.19.

According to another poll asking how the crisis affected the economic status of citizens (conducted in the United Kingdom, United States, Italy, France, Germany and Spain), about 50 percent of respondents either lost their job entirely or had their salary reduced in some manner since the start of the pandemic.

Read the full data table and methodology here for more information.