
A study by Adobe Express looked at aspects of working life, from the average salary to the price of a cappuccino, and concluded that Swindon, the home of large companies such as Nationwide and BMW as well as the Ministry of Defence, has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country at 2.4%.
Milton Keynes scored particularly highly thanks to an average annual salary of £39,623, while pottery town Stoke-on-Trent moved up the rankings, thanks in part to green spaces, good rail links to Birmingham and low prices for coffee and transport tickets.
Cheap meals and high salaries
The Adobe study compared the most populous 30 cities in the UK, after news that 30% of Brits are thinking of changing their working lives this year. It concluded that Norwich was the safest city, Bolton was the cheapest place to get a meal out and London had the highest annual salary.
Other cities in the top 10 included Plymouth, Sheffield, Leeds and Kingston upon Hull. Plymouth was also recently crowned the best city to live in in the UK by consultancy firm PwC, with Swindon coming fourth on the list.
The top 10 employee-friendly cities
Rank | City | Salary (£) | Unemployment (%) | Green space (%) | Public transport ticket (£) | Coffee (£) | Total score |
1 | Swindon | 35,605 | 2.4 | 27.15 | 2.40 | 2.98 | 6.541 |
2 | Milton Keynes | 39,623 | 3.6 | 31.11 | 2.90 | 3.25 | 6.309 |
3 | Stoke-on-Trent | 30,657 | 4 | 46.09 | 2.10 | 2.97 | 6.234 |
4 | Reading | 40,570 | 3.7 | 42.04 | 2.20 | 3.52 | 6.151 |
5 | Plymouth | 33,004 | 3.7 | 24.53 | 2.30 | 3.33 | 6.089 |
6 | Sheffield | 32,603 | 3.9 | 33.98 | 2 | 3.56 | 6.048 |
7 | Leeds | 34,354 | 4.1 | 41.9 | 2 | 3.29 | 5.996 |
8 | Peterborough | 33,425 | 5 | 32.71 | 2 | 2.83 | 5.991 |
9 | Kingston upon Hull | 30,966 | 2.9 | 18.71 | 2 | 2.87 | 5.958 |
10 | Brighton and Hove | 34,876 | 4.4 | 27.27 | 2.10 | 3.32 | 5.791 |

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