These Are the Best US Cities for College Grads

It's commencement season, meaning there are a whole bunch of new college grads now mulling how and where to kick off their careers. ADP wanted to find the best cities in which to jump-start that decades-long tenure, so it sifted through its own payroll data and ranked more than 50 metro areas with at least 1 million residents based on earnings, a city's cost of living, and hiring opportunities. The region around Alabama's Birmingham rose to No. 1, with a healthy 2.8% hiring rate and median wages of just over $59,000. Here, the top 10 spots to consider once that diploma is in hand:

1. Birmingham-Hoover, Alabama
2. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida
3. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California
4. Columbus, Ohio
5. Raleigh, North Carolina
6. Tulsa, Oklahoma
7. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, California
8. Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, Tennessee
9. Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, North Carolina
10. New York-Newark-Jersey City, New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania

See how other cities ranked here.