2. Phoenix

Jobs: 190 employers posting entry-level jobs in medical-health care, sales, business/finance, customer service, IT/MIS
Average Annual Pay: $40,110
Cost of Living Composite Index: 101.1
Unemployment Rate: 7.2%

The job market in Phoenix is apparently as blistering as the desert heat, which often has the city baking in 100-plus degree temperatures all summer. Although the average annual salary is lower in Phoenix than other cities on the list, so is the cost of living, a must for those just launching their careers. Avnet (AVT), an industrial distributor of electronic parts, enterprise computing, and storage products and embedded subsystems, is headquartered in Phoenix, as is PetSmart (PETM).

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