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Swindon takes the top spot as best city for workers

Swindon takes the top spot as best city for workers
Rosie Murray-West
Written By:
Posted:
13/01/2025
Updated:
13/01/2025

Swindon and Milton Keynes have been revealed as the UK’s best cities for employees, thanks to green space, cheap transport, and low unemployment rates.

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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