Hmm, I’m sure this is simply the circles we hang in, but this has not been my experience. Most of the PhD students I know (particularly in the humanities) are students who LOVE literature or history or art history or what have you. The idea of spending 6-8 years thinking and learning about it sounds awesome to them. Most of them also want to be professors and have idyllic dreams of a sun-drenched office on some great LAC campus somewhere, chatting with their students about Proust or Shakespeare or who have you. The level of denial they are in about how unlikely they are to ever have that job varies.
I’m not sure if this is true. Common job analysis shows that openings and the market are most robust in these cities (especially since you just named four tech hubs. I live in Seattle and it feels like everybody is hiring here!). Forbes has a [url=https://www.forbes.com/pictures/feki45eghmj/1-arlington-virginia/#428a050a3b5a]list[/url] from 2016 and the top cities included are places like Arlington, VA (suburb of DC); Madison, WI; DC itself; Boston; Minneapolis; Seattle; Pittsburgh; Austin; Atlanta; and San Francisco. Business Insider names Atlanta, Boston, DC, New York, SF, Seattle and Minneapolis in their list too and adds LA, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, San Diego, Baltimore, St. Louis and Miami. Even places that weight cost of living more heavily still have big cities show up very often, like [url=http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/25/best-starter-cities-for-college-grads.html]this[/url] Trulia list that looked at housing affordability vs. job listings.
But let’s face it, work isn’t the only part of life. I wouldn’t have moved to Tampa or Springfield, MA when I was 22 either, and I wouldn’t even move there at 30. Honestly, it seems at this point that the best mix of a good market + affordability are mid-sized Midwestern, Southern, and Southwestern cities - like Minneapolis, Madison, Phoenix, Cleveland, Columbus, St. Louis, Houston, Dallas, Austin, Atlanta, Orlando, and Nashville. And Fargo and Tampa, although even the lists that include them admit that the lifestyle isn’t great in those places depending on what young college grads are looking for.