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robertsnj · 56-60, M
The GDP of Houston is the highest which given it's size and loction makes sense. The size is important though as a cross refence. For instance San Antonio's GDP is small given its large population. I would see that as a red flag.
But you could reference look at the type of job you have and make a couple guestimates based on
1) Would you say your career path is skileld or unskilled labor. Did it take cartifcations or years to hone the skills to do your job well? If not it doesn't matter which city you pick. Just pick the one with the lowest unemploymen rate
2) However if you have a skilled job, look at market demand for that career path. It is dollar amount and you can google it.
3) The market saturation for it. It takes some digging and will tie into the GDP. For instance market saturation for El Paso and San Antonio will hve a more negative impace due the smaller GDP's when contrasted to Houston and Austin.
you can think of 2 and 3 as supply and demand for your skillset in the labor market.
4) Cost of living index. The further you are from the downtown the lower that cost will be. Look for trends as opposed to a stagnet number so you can run a projection for say 10 years from now.
5) Employment rate is tricky. You don't want to catch a single year because employment rates yo-yo in the USA. Instead pick a range of 5-10 years and benchmark the cities employment rate against the national employement rate. What you are looking for is a better trend YoY between the national avg and the city avg.
It takes some time, but if you do those 4 things, at a minimum, you can have a more data driven answer that is personalized for you instead of a gut instinct call
But you could reference look at the type of job you have and make a couple guestimates based on
1) Would you say your career path is skileld or unskilled labor. Did it take cartifcations or years to hone the skills to do your job well? If not it doesn't matter which city you pick. Just pick the one with the lowest unemploymen rate
2) However if you have a skilled job, look at market demand for that career path. It is dollar amount and you can google it.
3) The market saturation for it. It takes some digging and will tie into the GDP. For instance market saturation for El Paso and San Antonio will hve a more negative impace due the smaller GDP's when contrasted to Houston and Austin.
you can think of 2 and 3 as supply and demand for your skillset in the labor market.
4) Cost of living index. The further you are from the downtown the lower that cost will be. Look for trends as opposed to a stagnet number so you can run a projection for say 10 years from now.
5) Employment rate is tricky. You don't want to catch a single year because employment rates yo-yo in the USA. Instead pick a range of 5-10 years and benchmark the cities employment rate against the national employement rate. What you are looking for is a better trend YoY between the national avg and the city avg.
It takes some time, but if you do those 4 things, at a minimum, you can have a more data driven answer that is personalized for you instead of a gut instinct call