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Technologies","Northrop Grumman","Blue Origin"],"valueLabel":"25%"},{"n":230,"bar":0.5002371541501976,"key":"NC|cary","sub":"NC","href":"/places/north-carolina/city/cary","name":"Cary","rank":63,"stats":[{"label":"Entry-level openings","value":"56"},{"label":"All openings","value":"230"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"13%"}],"value":0.2434782608695652,"change":null,"employers":["Epic Games","Wake County Public School System","Garmin"],"valueLabel":"24%"},{"n":306,"bar":0.3289958407605466,"key":"FL|melbourne","sub":"FL","href":"/places/florida/city/melbourne","name":"Melbourne","rank":64,"stats":[{"label":"Entry-level openings","value":"49"},{"label":"All openings","value":"306"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"6%"}],"value":0.1601307189542484,"change":null,"employers":["Northrop Grumman","L3HARRIS Technologies","Harris Health Strategic Fund"],"valueLabel":"16%"}],"slug":"best-college-towns-for-junior-jobs-in-the-southeast","unit":"openings","scope":{"id":"southeast","kind":"region","name":"Southeast"},"title":"Best college towns for junior jobs in the Southeast","family":"Higher education","method":["A city's score is the share of its open professional roles tagged entry-level or early-career, read from the full posting text.","Only roles verified on the employer's own career site in the last week are counted. Internships are left out.","A city where one employer posts more than 50% of its openings is not ranked, so a single company cannot decide a city's score.","Only cities that have a college or university in the Department of Education directory are ranked."],"builtAt":"2026-11-03T03:37:23.486Z","edition":"2026-11","measure":"junior","sources":["NextChapter job data: open professional roles on employer career sites, verified in the last week"],"baseline":{"label":"all cities in our data","valueLabel":"33%"},"keyFacts":["#1 Lynchburg, VA: 49%","#2 Mobile, AL: 47%","#3 Virginia Beach, VA: 47%","64 cities ranked in the Southeast","Data as of November 2026"],"placeNoun":"cities","commentary":["The top ten is tightly packed: Lynchburg leads on 49%, and #10 Wilmington is at 43%.","Tallahassee is the largest market in the top ten, with 759 openings behind its figure.","Cities with fewer than 100 openings are not ranked, and small differences between neighbouring ranks are not meaningful."],"license":"Free to use and share with a link to https://launchyournextchapter.com/rankings/best-college-towns-for-junior-jobs-in-the-southeast"}