Slideshows

America's Best Cities for Six-Figure Jobs

Best Cities for Six-Figure Jobs

Looking to make a six-figure salary this year? Your chance of being among the 10 percent of full-time workers in the U.S. who earn more than $100k a year depends, in part, on where you live. Big pay tends to be concentrated in big cities and their surrounding areas, according to Alex Douzet, president of TheLadders, a $100k+ job search site. It is also concentrated in certain sectors, notably finance and information technology, followed by health care, biopharma, engineering, aerospace and defen
Photo: C. Taylor Crothers | Photographer's Choice | Getty Images

Looking to make a six-figure salary this year? Your chance of being among the 10 percent of full-time workers in the U.S. who earn more than $100k a year depends, in part, on where you live.

Big pay tends to be concentrated in big cities and their surrounding areas, according to Alex Douzet, president of TheLadders.com, a $100k+ job search site. It is also concentrated in certain sectors, notably finance and information technology, followed by health care, biopharma, engineering, aerospace and defense.

To get a sense of where employees have the best chance of making big money, TheLadders analyzed hiring activity across the top 20 metro areas and identified the markets with the most favorable ratio of job seekers to $100k+ job postings. It also highlighted the hottest sectors within each metro area for six-figure salaries.

Click ahead to find out where you have the best shot at making top dollar.

By Brooke SopelsaPosted 6 May 2010

Note: The ratio of job seekers to job postings for each city is rounded to the nearest whole number. The rankings, however, are based on the absolute ratio.

10. Chicago, Illinois

Job Seekers/Job Postings Ratio: 6:1
Hot Sectors: Financial Services, Software, IT

City Snapshot
Median Salary: $41,219
Median Home Price: $199,200
Unemployment Rate: 11.3