A NEW study has ranked Winchester as the best city in the UK for job opportunities.

The study, carried out by HR software provider Ciphr, compared data from 100 of the UK’s most populated towns and cities to find out which locations offer the best potential for jobs and salaries.

Towns and cities were rated out of 100 on a range of aspects, such as their latest employment and unemployment data and their number of job listings on Indeed, LinkedIn and Glassdoor per 10,000 local workers. Factors such as employment rate, growth, housing costs and satisfaction scores were also considered.

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Tom, 21, says competition for jobs in Winchester is fierce (Image: Tom Jackson)

Winchester ranked first, scoring well across many of the criteria, with a higher-than-average salary, a high and increasing employment rate (currently at 81.1%) and a vast amount of business per capita. Winchester ranked above Warrington, finishing in second place and St Albans in third. Notable locations such as Reading and Guilford also appeared in the top ten.

According to recent data from the Office for National Statistics, full-time workers living in Winchester usually earn £40,600 a year, which is 16% above the UK’s average full-time pay of £34,963. Winchester also has a low unemployment rate of 2.7%.

The Office for National Statistics’ most recent annual personal wellbeing survey revealed that Winchester has a higher level of life satisfaction than the majority of the towns and cities in the study, scoring 7.72 out of 10 compared to the UK average of 7.45.

Data also however highlighted issues of house affordability in Winchester, with rental properties averaging £1,200 a month, over a third of full-time pay. According to Rightmove, on average, properties sold for £665,891 in the last year, 16.4 times the average worker’s earnings.

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Furthermore, interviewing 21-year-old Theo Maclean highlighted the difficulties that Winchester’s younger workers face with finding employment. He said: “For the size of the city, the opportunities are good,” but added that “as a graduate, it’s been really hard to find work as it’s so competitive nowadays".

Overall, this data clearly demonstrates that Winchester largely outperforms its competitors with employment opportunities. This is not to however neglect the clear challenges faced by Winchester citizens, such as high house pricing and difficulties of graduates in finding work.