So, you need a job. Or you want a new job. But the employment market stinks, right? That’s what the TV and the Web report almost hourly (so we won’t forget).

Well, the situation doesn’t stink everywhere. Richard Florida and Charlotta Mellander ranked the top U.S. cities as far as their relative attractiveness to recent college grads seeking gainful employment.

Before we get to the rankings, let’s mix this up and make the data, perhaps, a bit more interesting. From the list of the top 10 U.S. cities for new college grads, the following areas are also each home to one of the 10 largest MPI chapters (MPI size rank in parenthesis).

1. San Francisco—Oakland—Fremont, Calif. (MPI Northern California Chapter—No. 1, tied)

2. San Jose—Sunnyvale—Santa Clara, Calif. (MPI Northern California Chapter—No. 1, tied)

3. New York—Newark—Edison, N.Y., N.J., Penn. (MPI Greater New York Chapter—No. 5)

...

10. Boston—Cambridge—Quincy, Mass., N.H. (MPI New England Chapter—No. 9)

Extrapolate away. I look at those destinations and surmise they’re most likely to be home to the most new college grads anyway just based on proximity to many notable college soils. I’m, of course, also dismayed to see the southern U.S. fall behind in another category.

Additional destinations thriving for new college grads include Champaign-Urbana, Ill.; Durham, N.C.; Gainesville, Fla.; Ithaca, N.Y.; and Ann Arbor, Mich.