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The top ten American cities which keep young professionals happy

Where would you be happiest living as a young professional?
Written by Charlie Osborne, Contributing Writer

Once out of the school system and eager to start earning their own money, many young people just entering the workforce start looking at towns and cities which they could see themselves settling down in.

Riverside, Calif., Philadelphia, Boston and Phoenix might not immediately come to mind considering the lights and glitz of areas like New York City, but according to data compiled by CareerBliss, these are some of the best places for young professionals to have the best chance of happiness.

Based on the analysis of data from over 45,000 employee-generated reviews of U.S. cities between April 2012 and March 2013, the online career site says that factors including employee relationships, growth opportunities, daily control and salary all affect how content a young worker is with the company and the location they live in. Once measured on a five-point scale, the employee results were divided by location.

Defining young professionals as those with less than ten years' experience, the survey lists the top ten cities as:

1. San Jose, Calif. 3.94

2. San Francisco, Calif. 3.93

3. Washington, D.C. 3.85

4. Chicago, Ill. 3.85

5. San Diego, Calif. 3.85

6. Riverside, Calif. 3.84

7. Philadelphia, Pa. 3.84

8. Houston, Texas. 3.83

9. Phoenix, Ariz. 3.83

10. Boston, Mass. 3.83

According to CareerBliss chief executive Heidi Golledge, firms need to work harder to keep their younger employees content, as they are typically two to three times more likely to job-hop. "In short, they take the right to pursuit happiness to heart and will typically not stay at a job with poor conditions for very long. They will even relocate to get out of an unhappy work environment."

Read More: Forbes

Image credit: Werner Kunz

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com

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