FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Alia Henson Director of Communications Alia.Henson@careerbliss.

com (949) 333-5566

CareerBliss Announces the Best and Worst Cities to Work

New Data Reveals Cities such as Birmingham, Alabama and El Paso, Texas Outrank New York City for Happy Workers Irvine, CA (February 1, 2011) CareerBliss, the leading online career community helping people find joy and success at every step in their careers, announces new data revealing the Best and Worst Cities to Work. The information is based on analysis from more than 260,000 independent company reviews and highlights what cities have the happiest workers. Leading the way is a city known for its tech market, San Jose, Calif., which earns the title of Best City to Work. In conjunction with the best cities, Minneapolis, Minn., takes the title as The Worst City to Work,here employees are least happy with all eight factors that measure job satisfaction levels. CareerBliss outlined the top fifty cities evaluating an average score combining eight factors that affect work happiness: growth opportunities, compensation, benefits, work-life balance, career advancement, senior management, job security and whether the employee would recommend the company to others.Cities which ranked high for having happy employees include Birmingham, Ala., Memphis, Tenn., and El Paso, Texas, which all outranked well-known metropolitan areas such as Chicago, New York, and Atlanta. The data shows that workers in cities like Birmingham, Ala., and Memphis, Tenn., are happier with job security, work-life balance, and growth opportunities. Best Cities to Work:
Rank 1. 2. Metro Area San Jose, CA San Francisco, CA Index Score: Work Happiness Average* 3.5386 3.4669

3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Jacksonville, FL Miami, FL Washington, DC Memphis, TN El Paso, TX Los Angeles, CA San Diego, CA

3.4495 3.448 3.448 3.4433 3.4269 3.4266 3.4243

Birmingham, AL 3.4192 *Happiness Rating: One to five scale - rating eight aspects of job happiness

Selected Cities Not on the Top 10:

Rank Metro Area 14 New York, NY 17 Atlanta, GA Index Score: Work Happiness Average* 3.3939 3.3888

24 Chicago, IL 3.3718 Happiness Rating: One to five scale - rating eight aspects of job happiness

Worst Cities to Work

Index Score: Work Happiness Average* 3.3009 3.2984 3.2938 3.2864 3.2861 3.2824 3.2788 3.2668 3.2469

Rank 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.

Metro Area Tampa,FL Portland,OR Tucson,AZ Brooklyn,NY Salt Lake City,UT Pittsburgh,PA Cleveland,OH Omaha,NE Indianapolis,IN

Saint Paul,MN 3.2415 Happiness Rating: One to five scale - rating eight aspects of job happiness

Heidi Golledge, Co-founder and CEO of CareerBliss says, Some may be surprised that a smaller city like El Paso, Texas actually outranks large metropolitan areas like New York and Chicago. However, our data shows that the military is a largesource of employment for people in this area, and data consistently reveals military workers are happy with their careers and work environment. In addition, Matt Miller, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of CareerBliss notes that certain cities are centers for thriving industries. The city of San Jose comes in first overall with happy workers, and San Jose is home to Silicon Valley, a technology hub, where tech jobs provide growth opportunities, advancement and good compensation. All of these factors can have a significant impact on scores, says Miller. Both San Jose and San Francisco which rank number one and two respectively, have an average salary that exceeds most cities. For example, CareerBliss data indicates that the average annual salary in San Jose is $82,000 a year, whereas the average salary in Minneapolis, which ranked as the city with lowest worker happiness scores show an average annual salary of $62,000. Heidi Golledge of CareerBliss says, There is never just one factor that contributes to overall work happiness. In the best cities to work you will find employees who rank many factors high, these cities typically have workers who feel valued, can grow with their career, maintain work-life balance and receive good pay. ### About CareerBliss CareerBliss is an online career community designed to help everyone find happiness in the workplace. An information hub for everyone who works, employers, job seekers and recruiters, CareerBliss offers the ability for people to find out what makes them happy and the ability to seek that out in other jobs or improve it in their current one using our PhD Board of Advisors, more than six million independent company reviews and salary comparisons, and more than two million job listings. For more information, visit: www.CareerBliss.com