With over 50 colleges and universities in and around Atlanta, recent graduates don’t need to look far when it comes to planning their next move.
For the second year in a row, a study by CoworkingCafe ranked Atlanta No. 1 among large cities for starting a career.
In fact, the study’s authors noted that Atlanta pulled further ahead from last year with the largest improvement among its competitors in the large-city bracket. Atlanta was followed by San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
Atlanta had a lot of things going for it in the latest survey. It added over 64,000 new residents between 2024 and 2025, and the city continues to enjoy a broad and diversified jobs base that includes health care, logistics, fintech and film production. IT roles are expected to grow by up to 34% through 2034.
CoworkingCafe scored the cities across three broad categories — employment, financial and lifestyle — which were each comprised of three sub-categories, including jobs for recent graduates, median graduate income, leisure establishments density and coworking-space density.
Atlanta was No. 1 for coworking with 23.8 spaces per 100,000 residents and No. 2 for leisure with 731 establishments per 100,000 residents. The population is highly educated as well, with 52.9% holding a bachelor’s degree or higher, putting it in seventh place. Atlanta ranked seventh in several other areas as well: Unemployment rate among 20-29 year olds (4.3%), median income for those 25 years old and up ($85,155) and share of population with employer-based health insurance (67.6%).
