The Happiest (and Unhappiest) Cities to Work In

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While the cities of Miami, Worcester, Mass., and Oklahoma City, Okla., may not have much in common geographically, workers in those cities are sharing a desired honor. That is because those cities took home top honors on the list of the happiest cities for people to work in, according to online employment advice forum CareerBliss.

The list, which was based on postings by employees, took into account factors such as job resources, company culture and work environment in composing their rankings. Rounding out the top ten list of the happiest cities were:

• San Jose, Calif.   
• Oxnard, Calif.   
• Wichita, Kan.   
• Killeen, Texas    
• Syracuse, N.Y.    
• San Antonio  
• Provo, Utah   

"There were a few surprises this year," Matt Miller, chief technology officer and co-founder of CareerBliss, said. "Oklahoma City, which ranked 31 in 2011, moved up to our top ten list for 2012. Miami, which ranked fourth last year, is now first overall. On average, employees in the 50 happiest cities are most satisfied with the culture of their company, the people they work with, their day-to-day tasks and the way they work."

At the other end of the spectrum was New Haven, Conn., which was rated as the unhappiest city for people to work in. According to the survey, cities that ranked low on the unhappy list were consistently rated low by employees due to a lack of growth opportunity and unimpressive reward systems and support. The rest of the unhappy list included:

• Dayton, Ohio  
• Milwaukee      
• Tulsa, Okla.      
• Albuquerque, N.M.
• Fort Collins, Colo. 
• Buffalo, N.Y.         
• Greensboro, N.C.    
• Austin, Texas    
• Cincinnati  

"The 'CareerBliss Happiest Cities and Unhappiest Cities for Work' (list) is important information for not only companies, but also city governments, job-seekers and people looking to transition to a new area," Heidi Golledge, chief executive officer and co-founder of CareerBliss, said. "For some folks, 2012 might not only be the year of a job change, but also a city change to find true career happiness. Cities with employers that cultivate rewarding work environments and encourage employee growth have immense influence on the overall sentiment of a city’s career landscape. They also have much lower turnover, which tends to increase productivity and even happier employees."

Employee scores were rated on a scale of one to five, with Miami receiving a rating of 4.14 and New Haven, Conn., receiving a rating of 3.46. The rest of the list can be found at CareerBliss.

This story was provided by BusinessNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Reach BusinessNewsDaily staff writer David Mielach at Dmielach@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @D_M89.