Cities With Best-Paying Jobs: How Illinois Towns Rank

ILLINOIS — California cities dominate when it comes to the top-paying jobs in the United States, and no Illinois city ranks among the top 20, according to a new set of rankings from U.S. News & World Report. Three of the top five cities that the publication designated as the best paying for jobs are in California while two cities in the Northeast take the No.3 and No.4 spots.

The rankings were released along with U.S. News’ annual list of the 100 best jobs and the list for best paying jobs in 2019.

These are the 25 Best-Paying Jobs in Illinois
Best IL Cities To Find A Job In 2019

To compile the best paying jobs by city list, U.S. News uses its 100 best jobs list. For each job, the publication prepares the top five best paying cities using annual mean salary figures from The Bureau of Labor Statistics. After that, U.S. News tallies which cities have the most jobs associated to them.

The Illinois cities and counties that made the list are:

• Chicago, No. 27
• Lake County, No. 30
• Springfield, No. 45
• Elgin, No. 60
• Bloomington, No. 86
• Champaign, No. 90
• Carbondale, No. 129
• Decatur, No. 136
• Kankakee, No. 163
• Peoria, No. 188
• Rockford, No. 192

Some median and high-paying jobs and their average salaries in Chicago, for example, include:

• Cement Mason and Concrete Finisher ($74,390)
• Construction Worker ($63,250)
• Glazier ($77,240)
• Physical Therapist Aide ($42,070)
• Sheet Metal Worker ($75,830)
• Structural Iron and Steelworker ($89,730)

Below is U.S. News’ full list of the top-paying cities for jobs:

1. San Francisco
2. San Jose, California
3. New York, New York
4. Bridgeport, Connecticut
5. Oakland, California
6. San Rafael, California
7. Nassau County, New York
8. Fairbanks, Alaska
9. Washington, District of Columbia
10. Salinas, California
11. Anchorage, Alaska
12. Newark, New Jersey
13. Vallejo, California
14. Silver Spring, Maryland
15. Urban Honolulu, Hawaii
16. Boston, Massachusetts
17. Seattle, Washington
18. Kahului, Hawaii
19. Oxnard, California
20. Sacramento, California

U.S. News executive editor Kim Castro says wages aren’t the only thing working in employees’ favor in 2019.

“To lure and retain workers, companies are also boosting the benefits they provide, offering flexible hours and remote work opportunities while investing in individuals’ personal and professional development – all reasons why software developer continues to top the Best Jobs list,” Castro said in a press release. “Organizations are focused more on hiring workers who they can train rather than finding the ‘perfect candidate,’ giving more room for gig workers and freelancers.”

According to U.S. News, the top 10 jobs on its 100 best list are:

• Software Developer (1)
• Statistician (2)
• Physician Assistant (3)
• Dentist (4)
• Orthodontist (5)
• Nurse Anesthetist (5)
• Nurse Practitioner (7)
• Pediatrician (8)
• Obstetrician and Gynecologist (9)
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon (9)
• Prosthodontist (9)
• Physician (9)

You can see the full list of top 100 jobs here.

The list of the top 100 jobs is created by scoring seven components on a scale of 0 to 10. The measures include median salary, work-life balance, stress level and employment rate. (You can see the full methodology here.)

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