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The 10 U.S. Cities With the Happiest Workers

America’s happiest city to work, according to career site CareerBliss, is Mountain View, Calif., the Silicon Valley city that’s home to dozens of technology companies, including Google, Intuit, LinkedIn, and Symantec.

Detroit, where companies like GM, Quicken Loans, and Blue Cross Blue Shield are based, took the second spot in CareerBliss’s annual list of the happiest cities to work in the United States. Three of the top 10 are located in Silicon Valley, where the experience for many female tech workers has been more treacherous, as Emily Chang’s new book Brotopia portrays.

The list is based on employee reviews that evaluate key factors affecting work happiness including one’s relationship with their boss and coworkers, the work environment, job resources, compensation, growth opportunities, company culture, company reputation, daily tasks, and job control over work performed daily.

Cities that have opportunities for higher education, personal growth, and year-round activities are more likely to have happier residents and employees, CareerBliss cofounder Heidi Golledge said.

Each city is also assigned a “BlissScore,” which is the overall job happiness score assigned by employees. This score is derived from company reviews, which evaluate each of the key factors that contribute to the overall happiness in the workplace on a scale of one to five.

The 10 U.S. cities with the happiest workers are:

  1. Mountain View, Calif.
  2. Detroit, Mich.
  3. Boulder, Colo.
  4. Richardson, Texas
  5. Stamford, Conn.
  6. Redmond, Wash.
  7. San Jose, Calif.
  8. Santa Clara, Calif.
  9. Rockville, Md.
  10. Cleveland, Ohio