By YOUNG MONEY Staff
14 September 2011

A recent survey from the college job search website CareerRookie.com and Apartments.com offers a list of the best locations across the U.S. for recent graduates looking to begin their career on the right foot.

CareerRookie.com factored together data on the number of jobs available for people with less than one year of experience, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment and the proportion of young people in a city. The surprising top of the list was Hartford-New Haven, with an average rent of $1,047 per month. Boston and Washington, D.C., ranked third and seventh, respectively, despite average rents of more than $1,600. Cleveland proved the least expensive locale at $695 per month.

"There are almost three-times as many renters moving for new job opportunities this year than in 2010," Tammy Kotula, public relations and promotions manager at Apartments.com, said in a statement. "This tells us that the economy is improving, but people are relocating as a result."

The survey also incorporates information from the latest business survey from CareerBuilder.com, CareerRookie.com's parent site, which suggests that the employment picture is slowly improving for college graduates. The proportion of businesses looking to hire recent graduates grew 2 percent from last year to 46 percent.