Toledo, Ohio

Toledo is situated at a strategic location. It's a one-hour trip to Detroit, a two-hour journey to Cleveland, and around four hours to Chicago from this location on the western edge of Lake Erie. Although Toledo has had a slowing economy since the 1980s, the rust belt city has made advances in recent years toward a brighter future.

According to research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, construction jobs increased the greatest in Toledo (6.4 percent between March 2018 and 2019). According to the research, employment in the financial activities sector "increased faster in the metro area (at 1.4 percent) than it did in Ohio (0.6 percent) and the United States (1.3 percent)". There are about three dozen universities and higher learning institutions within 60 miles of Toledo, including Bowling Green University and the University of Toledo, providing an exceptional concentration of potentially high-skilled workers.