From oil and gas giants in Houston to big banks in New York City, LinkedIn's Top Companies city lists reflect the industries and employers shaping local economies in 10 major U.S. metropolitan areas. The rankings use LinkedIn data to evaluate companies that are setting their employees up for long-term career success at the city level. The featured employers span sectors, from healthcare in Boston (CVS Health), to media and entertainment in Los Angeles (Walt Disney Company), to tech in San Francisco (Salesforce).
What are the best workplaces to grow a career in some of the biggest cities in the U.S.?
That’s the question our city-level Top Companies lists set out to answer. The data-backed rankings highlight the best employers for career growth in 10 major U.S. metropolitan areas, from Atlanta to D.C.
Each list points to the employers shaping local economies and creating opportunities across industries, from financial services in NYC to healthcare in Boston. We applied the same methodology pillars as our U.S. Top Companies list — but the data reflects activity at the local city level vs. the entire country: https://lnkd.in/USTopCompanies26.
Check out each list below to explore open jobs, dig into in-demand skills and connect with people you may know:
📍 Atlanta: https://lnkd.in/ATLTopCompanies26
📍 Boston: https://lnkd.in/BostonTopCompanies26
📍 Chicago: https://lnkd.in/ChicagoTopCompanies26
📍 Dallas: https://lnkd.in/DallasTopCompanies26
📍 Houston: https://lnkd.in/HoustonTopCompanies26
📍 Los Angeles: https://lnkd.in/LATopCompanies26
📍 New York City: https://lnkd.in/NYCTopCompanies26
📍 Philadelphia: https://lnkd.in/PhiladelphiaTopCompanies26
📍 San Francisco: https://lnkd.in/SFTopCompanies26
📍 Washington, D.C.: https://lnkd.in/DCTopCompanies26
Weigh in below: What makes your city a great place to grow a career? And what cities would you like to see rankings for in the future?
These Companies Say AI Is Reviving Entry-Level Jobs, Not Killing Them
What employers expect from their youngest workers is shifting as fast as the technology itself, a new report finds.
For years, employers pointed to AI as a reason to slash hiring of college graduates. Now, a growing number are reversing course — arguing that AI is actually driving them to hire more entry-level workers, not fewer.
According to one of the largest surveys of employer graduate-hiring plans this year, nearly three times as many executives at companies using or exploring AI said they were increasing junior-level hiring in 2026 compared to those cutting back. The companies using AI most aggressively were the most optimistic, according to the Strada Education Foundation, which surveyed roughly 1,500 employers.
The findings reveal a fundamental shift in what companies expect from their newest hires. More than 40% of surveyed employers said AI is bringing greater complexity and analytical responsibility to entry-level roles, as the technology absorbs more of the rote, administrative tasks that were once the bread and butter of new graduates.
A Counterintuitive Trend
Companies are still in the early stages of restructuring operations around AI, and the technology's long-term impact on employment remains uncertain. Many cost-conscious employers have frozen or reduced new-graduate hires in recent years, some explicitly citing AI as a factor. In March, unemployment among recent graduates stood at 5.6% — two full percentage points higher than in 2019. The overall jobless rate, by contrast, sits at 4.3%, having risen only a fraction of that amount.
Yet some employers are bucking the trend.
MetLife, the life insurer, grew its intern and new-graduate hiring by nearly 30% last year and expects entry-level head count to climb again in 2026. Entry-level positions are the "primary mechanisms" for professionals to develop leadership and other critical skills, said Bill Pappas, the company's head of global technology and operations.
IBM is also expanding entry-level hiring this year, arguing the move is essential to securing talent over the next three to five years.
| Increase | Decrease | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moderately | Significantly | Moderately | Significantly | |
| 2025 | 11% | 3% | 36% | 10% |
| 2026* | 15% | 2% | 11% | 35% |
*Projection. Includes employers that have at least explored using AI and hire entry-level employees. Responses of "no significant change" are not shown.
Source: Strada/Artemis Strategy Group survey of 1,498 U.S. executives and senior talent leaders, conducted March 3–22, 2026
"Not Surprised Whatsoever"
The idea that AI-embracing companies would boost entry-level hiring might seem counterintuitive. Not to Bryce Strauss, co-founder of Nominal, which builds software for engineers in energy, aviation, and satellite sectors to operate hardware.
"I'm not surprised whatsoever by that finding," he said. Nominal just raised 1 billion valuation and is "using AI everywhere," Strauss added. The company is also hiring 10 new graduates — double what it hired in 2025.
He recounted how one new engineering graduate, without being asked, built an analysis tool using AI that her entire team now relies on. Leaning into entry-level talent "has blossomed into one of the best decisions we have made," he said.
Nominal's three co-founders personally visit college campuses to recruit. Strauss brings pizza to club meetings in rocketry and Formula SAE, a race-car design competition. The in-person approach helps him spot standout candidates whose résumés might otherwise get lost in the pile. "It's insanely high ROI," he said.
Anxiety on Campus — and in the Cubicle
AI remains deeply unpopular with many Americans, largely because of fears it could eliminate swaths of white-collar jobs — with early-career professionals hit hardest. At several graduations this month, students booed commencement speakers, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, when AI came up.
Evan Reed, a 23-year-old graduating from Hamilton College, said he understands the wariness. But he's found AI genuinely useful — with his professors' approval — for building slide presentations and coding maps for his thesis.
Reed has accepted a project-finance analyst role in New York and makes a compelling case: companies that move early to hire AI-savvy graduates could gain a decisive edge.
"If you can increase head count by two or three people, but have everybody manage AI agents, essentially you're expanding by 10, 20, maybe 25 people," he said. "You're able to get more deals, you're going to be able to do more stuff, because they can build a slide deck faster."
Scott Pulsipher, president of Western Governors University, said employers surveyed through his school are still hiring — but they want candidates with both work experience and AI fluency. That skills gap, he said, helps explain why so many graduates are struggling to land jobs.
A Ripple Effect: Midcareer Anxiety
Overall, the Strada survey found that AI-using employers were slightly less bullish on entry-level hiring in 2026 than in 2025. The share planning to cut junior hires rose to 17%, up from 13%. The survey didn't ask companies to quantify the size of planned hires or cuts.
Rokt, an e-commerce technology company, hired about 160 entry-level employees in 2025 and expects similar numbers this year — partly to scoop up talent while others are pulling back, said Bruce Buchanan, its co-founder and CEO. Junior hires spend several months learning the product deeply before joining their functional teams.
These new workers will operate closely with AI agents, Buchanan said. Those who embrace the technology can devote more time to the core of their jobs — problem-solving — while AI handles the grunt work.
He also noted a ripple effect: hiring AI-fluent graduates is creating "a lot of anxiety" among midcareer employees.
"If you spent 15 years learning to be a senior engineer, and now you've got this upstart person in 12 months that can do more than you with AI agents, that's kind of threatening," he said.