Halloween is a time for candy, haunted houses, and elaborate costumes — but it's also a pretty good time to start plotting an escape from a possible zombie apocalypse. For New Yorkers, it seems, that plan might be more difficult to construct than for the residents of any other major U.S. city. That's according to an actual study conducted by CareerBuilder. The results of the study were compiled into a Zombie Apocalypse Index, or as Careerbuilder calls it, "a totally necessary and 100% practical survey of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas most equipped to survive an actual night (or day) of the living dead."
To come up with the results, 53 of the largest cities in America were ranked based on occupational skills and industry characteristics found by Economic Modeling Specialists International or EMSI. The factors considered were ability to defend against a virus, ability to contain a virus, ability to find a cure, and ability to outlast an epidemic with an ample food supply. Unfortunately, NYC landed dead last.
The category that hurt the Big Apple most was ability to contain a virus. That's because there are fewer engineers and construction workers in New York than other cities, and of course, it has an extremely high population density. This might be bad news for New Yorkers but try to look at it as just another sacrifice you have to make to live in one of the most exciting cities in the world. Throw dying in a zombie apocalypse on the pile with painfully high rental rates and soul sucking subway commutes. Check out CareerBuilder's interactive Zombie Apocalypse Index map to see how other major cities fared against the threat of the undead.
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