The Best Places to Live in Missouri When You're Job Hunting

Looking to find a new home in Missouri? The best places to live in Missouri have a large variety of jobs, as well as a good mix of culture, history, and nature. You can hike past waterfalls and springs at the Ozark Highland Area, kick off the fall at a harvest festival, visit legendary music venues, and admire sunflower fields at the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area.

It’s not hard to make a good living in Missouri. It has a diverse mix of blue-collar and white-collar jobs, with a focus on engineering, finance, manufacturing, transportation, mining, service, and agriculture.

These are some more of the best things about living in Missouri:

• Missouri has more shoreline than California. Yes, you read that right. Just the shoreline around Lake of Ozarks is 1,100 miles. You can find hundreds of lakes and rivers, several sandy beaches, and places to rent boats, canoes, and kayaks.
• Missouri has several hidden spots for scuba diving, such as the rock formations at Table Rock Lake, and sunken vehicles and a diving platform at the Dive Stop.
• The state has a rich music culture. Popular music venues and events include the Grand Country Music, Dolly Parton’s Stampede, the Old Webster Jazz & Blues Festival, and the Southern Gospel Picnic.
• Missouri has a relatively low cost of living.
• As a Missouri resident, you don’t have to be stuck rooting for a mediocre sport team. You’ll have successful teams to cheer for, such as the St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Chiefs.

The best places to live in Missouri include both large metropolitan areas and smaller towns. Here are a few of the top cities in Missouri where you’ll find culture, community, and a successful career.

St. Louis

St. Louis boomed during the 1800s as a common stop for explorers traveling west, earning the city the nickname “Gateway to the West.” The city honors this past with the Gateway Arch steel monument, as well as riverboat cruises along the Mississippi River. The heart of St. Louis, however, is considered the Forest Park, where you can find a zoo, an art museum, a history museum, and a science center.

St. Louis is one of the best places to live in Missouri if you’re a sports fan. It has a whole district created for Cardinals fans: the Ballpark Village, adjacent to the team’s home stadium, the Busch Stadium.

St. Louis today offers a mix of office and manufacturing jobs. Large companies located here include General Motors and Boeing’s Defense, Space, and Security.

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Kansas City

Kansas City is one of the best cities in Missouri because its job market and its atmosphere. It’s part of a larger metropolitan area that also includes Kansas City, Kansas. It’s nicknamed “Paris of the Plains” due to its many boulevards, water fountains, and cultural offerings, including theaters, a symphony, and a ballet. But the city’s historical buildings were actually modelled based on Spanish architecture in Sevilla. The city has plenty of local flavor as well, like Kansas City BBQ and Kansas City jazz.

Today the tech and communications industries are thriving in Kansas City, which has one of the fastest-growing tech job markets in the nation. The finance industry is strong here as well, with several banks among the city’s top employers. Kansas City’s four research hospitals make it a prime location for healthcare workers.

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Jefferson City

Jefferson City, the capital of Missouri, is chock-full of impressive historical architecture, such as the state capitol, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Place and has stained glass, murals, and statues illustrating the state’s history. But the biggest attraction in town is the old state penitentiary, which hosts both history tours and ghost tours. If you prefer a lighter side of the city, Jefferson offers plenty of other museums, sidewalk cafes, and quirky shops.

The city is one of the best places to live in Missouri if you want to work in the public sector. You can find many government jobs in Jefferson, but there are also many other public jobs—in fact, the local school district is one of the largest employers in the city.

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Springfield

Taking a road trip is easy from the city of Springfield, the birthplace of the famous Route 66 highway. Celebrate this history by viewing classic cars, vintage RVs, and live performances at the annual Route 66 Festival. If you prefer running, join one of the city’s several yearly competitions. Perhaps you’d rather bike? This city is for you as well. You’ll have access to the Tour de Ozarks and the Ozark Greenways Adventure Race in Springfield, MO.

When you’re ready to join the jobs race, you can find many positions in administration, engineering, and healthcare.

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Joplin

Joplin is a small town packed with cultural and historical sites, such as Bonnie and Clyde’s hideout, the Route 66 mural park, and the Joplin Museum Complex. Joplin was also the birthplace of Langston Hughes and Robert Cummings.

Joplin is one of the best places to live in Missouri if you want to be close to nature. There are plenty of natural sights in and near Joplin, including the Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center, several parks and trails, countryside golf courses, and the spectacular Grand Falls, nicknamed the miniature Niagara Falls.

Despite its relatively small size, Joplin is a logistics and transportation center due to its location near several major railroads and highways. You can also find jobs in production, administration, and business operations in Joplin, MO.

Discover Joplin jobs on Monster.

Jazz Up Your Job Search With Monster

Do you need a new approach to your job search? Start by creating a profile on Monster. This gives you the opportunity to upload your resume and make it visible to recruiters searching for job candidates. You can also get regular emails with career advice, as well as notifications when new jobs are posted. Have you picked a location among the best places to live in Missouri? You can also use your profile to apply directly to jobs you find here.