I like a little good news on a Friday morning, how about you? Well, here’s some:
Perhaps you heard the unexpectedly positive unemployment numbers this morning. While that makes us happy, what’s even better for us Baltimoreans is Forbes’ assessment that our city is one of the best in the nation for those looking for a job. “Home to major research institutions and defense-related contractors,” Baltimore “has particularly many job opportunities for health care and information technology professionals.” (And casino dealers.) In the third quarter of 2012, there were 44 job openings for every 1,000 city residents — more than nearly every other city in the nation (although fewer than D.C., alas). It should be noted that Forbes was looking at what it deemed “high-paying job postings,” or those with salary estimates of $50,000 or more.
And in not-unrelated news, Baltimore’s average paychecks also rank highly among other comparable metro areas. Average starting pay ($49,500) and mid-career median pay ($87,200) make Baltimore the 16th-best paid metro area in the nation.
Now, if you prefer gloom and doom, you could spend some time thinking about how not all boats are benefitting from this rising tide; some people — some entire parts of the city — are excluded from this tentative growth. But good news is still good news: now, let’s figure out how to keep these high-earners in the city.
