Welcome, College Grads!

Today, Raleigh added to its growing string of national accolades by being named the No. 1 best city for recent college grads in 2025 in the annual study by ADP Research. 

It is the second consecutive year Raleigh has claimed the top spot based on ADP’s exhaustive criteria. According to ADP, “North Carolina’s Research Triangle region consistently draws an influx of people attracted by its job opportunities, comparatively affordable cost of living, and strong hiring.” 

Kyle Touchstone, Director, Raleigh Economic Development, is quoted in this morning’s Wall Street Journal article about the ADP study.

“We’ve seen this stream of office projects over the last 18 months, and North Carolina State University and some of our private colleges are all supplying this great pipeline of workers.”

 ADP’s analysis evaluated data of more than 140,000 people aged 20 to 29 at over 27,000 U.S. employers from January 2019 through April 2025. The study examined 55 U.S. metropolitan areas with a population of at least one million, ranking them based on annual wages, hiring rates, and affordability.  

 You can read the full article on the WSJ website.