Austin tops career opportunities list

AUSTIN (KXAN) - WomenCo, a online community for professional women, ranked the top 25 cities for careers.

They rated Austin as number one in the U.S. for getting the most "bang for your buck."

Their rankings were based on "cities' growth rates, average salaries and costs of living," said WomenCo. "We factored in average commute time, which, according to experts, has a colossal impact on your overall happiness. We looked not only at unemployment figures, but also at the rate that unemployment has actually increased since February 2008."

Austin topped the list because of job growth opportunities. Also, the study showed Austin had one of the lowest changes in unemployment since the recession started. Also, with the University of Texas and the government both planning to add jobs soon, the city proved it's recession-proof nature.

The average salary in Austin is $41,330 and the average commute time is just under 22 minutes.

Here are the rankings:

1. Austin, TX
2. San Antonio, TX
3. Salt Lake City, UT
4. Oklahoma City, OK
5. Raleigh-Cary Metropolitan Area, NC
6. Seattle, WA
7. Rochester, NY
8. Portland, OR
9. Denver, CO
10. Honolulu, HI
11. Nashville, TN
12. Virginia Beach, VA
13. Kansas City, MO
14. Pittsburgh, PA
15. Charlotte, NC
16. Boston, MA
17. Buffalo, NY
18. Columbus, OH
19. Indianapolis, IN
20. St. Louis, MO
21. Hartford, CT
22. Louisville, KY
23. Cincinnati, OH
24. Philadelphia, PA
25. San Diego, CA

To see the reasoning behind these rankings, go to the analysis by WomenCo.

Watch below to get a kick out of why Texas as a whole is adequately recession-proof: