Seattle Culture
From Dorms to Dreams
Seattle, Bellevue rank among top cities for new grads
By Rob Smith December 26, 2024
If you’re a newly minted college graduate — or perhaps you know one, like your son, daughter, niece or nephew — Seattle is the place to be.
College graduates across Seattle earn a median income of $90,159 annually, making it among the top cities in the United States to launch post-graduate careers. A CoWorking Café report says almost two-thirds of the population has a bachelor’s degree, while the unemployment rate for those in their 20s is only 4%.
The news is equally optimistic in Bellevue, which ranks as the No. 3 mid-sized city for starting a career after college. The median salary for recently minted grads is even higher than in Seattle, at $108,000 per year. The report notes that 85.3% of city residents have employer-based health care.
Only San Francisco, Atlanta, Minneapolis and Denver rank ahead of Seattle in the large category, and only two cities in Virginia — Arlington and Alexandria — ranked ahead of Bellevue in the mid-sized category.
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