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The measures and weights are fixed in advance and shown here. Only counties with at least 20,000 people in the labor force, 100 openings, 500 unemployed people and 50,000 residents are ranked.","q":"How is the ranking calculated?"},{"a":"Every month. This is the November 2026 edition. Older editions stay on this site at their own dated addresses.","q":"How often is it updated?"}],"lead":"Wake County is the best all-round county for job seekers in the Southeast, with a score of 87 / 100.","minN":100,"rows":[{"n":1908,"bar":1,"key":"37183","sub":"NC","href":"/places/north-carolina/county/wake-county","name":"Wake County","rank":1,"stats":[{"label":"Openings per 100 unemployed","value":"10"},{"label":"Unemployment rate","value":"2.8%"},{"label":"Private-sector job growth since 2022","value":"+7.3%"}],"value":87.46710526315789,"change":null,"employers":[],"valueLabel":"87 / 100"},{"n":1230,"bar":0.9898458066942458,"key":"01089","sub":"AL","href":"/places/alabama/county/madison-county","name":"Madison County","rank":2,"stats":[{"label":"Openings per 100 unemployed","value":"17"},{"label":"Unemployment rate","value":"3.2%"},{"label":"Private-sector job growth since 2022","value":"+7.8%"}],"value":86.57894736842104,"change":null,"employers":[],"valueLabel":"87 / 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unemployed 30%, unemployment rate 25%, private-sector job growth since 2022 25%, population growth since 2020 20%.","Openings are our professional roles placed in the county of the city their posting names; unemployment is BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics, not seasonally adjusted; jobs and sectors are BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages; population is Census; American Job Centers are from CareerOneStop. The measures and weights are fixed in advance and shown here.","Only counties with at least 20,000 people in the labor force, 100 openings, 500 unemployed people and 50,000 residents are ranked."],"builtAt":"2026-11-04T03:37:37.436Z","edition":"2026-11","measure":"coverall","sources":["NextChapter job data: open professional roles by county","Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics and Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages","Census Bureau population estimates"],"baseline":null,"keyFacts":["#1 Wake County, NC: 87 / 100","#2 Madison County, AL: 87 / 100","#3 Miami-Dade County, FL: 82 / 100","77 counties ranked in the Southeast","Data as of November 2026"],"placeNoun":"counties","commentary":["The top ten is tightly packed: Wake County leads on 87 / 100, and #10 Knox County is at 75 / 100.","New Hanover County reaches #4 on a sample of 195 openings, a smaller market than most of the top ten, so its rank can move more from month to month.","Miami-Dade County is the largest market in the top ten, with 3,265 openings behind its figure.","Counties 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-county-job-markets-in-the-southeast"}