Austin-San Marcos Rank 9th In Best Places For Tech Jobs

The technology industry is booming, and the benefits are spreading far and wide — in California’s Silicon Valley and beyond. Metropolitan areas across the nation are home to opportunities in a variety of tech jobs.

Companies also are hiring for roles ranging from software developers and Web developers to computer and information research scientists and everything in between. The most successful tech cities are home to big companies or are places that encourage startups through accelerator programs and venture capital investment.

Best of the best

NerdWallet examined the nation’s 370 largest metropolitan areas to find the best places for tech jobs. All of the top 10 places for tech jobs feature more opportunities than the national average of 18 tech jobs for every 1,000 employees. The tech workers on our list are paid very well — every metro area on our list has a relatively higher average salary than the national mean of just under $70,500. Only one place in our top 10, however, has a lower median rent than the average median rent of the places we analyzed.

Here’s what we analyzed to find the best places for tech jobs:

Size of the tech industry. We examined the number of tech jobs for 1,000 employees in each metro area, using 2014 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Income for tech jobs. We looked at the annual mean salary for tech jobs in each area. We also considered the median gross rent as a cost-of-living metric to see how far the average income went in every place.

For more information on affordability in U.S. cities, check out NerdWallet’s cost of living calculator. For similar studies and more, visit NerdWallet Cities.

Key takeaways

Tech jobs are geographically diverse. Some places on our list are expected — Silicon Valley and Seattle — but tech hubs are found throughout the country. On the East Coast, tech companies are thriving in the Washington, D.C., corridor and the Boston metro area. To the south, there’s Huntsville, Alabama, and the Research Triangle in North Carolina. Boulder, Colorado, and the Silicon Hills of Austin, Texas, also made our list.

Information technology is the leader. Although all tech industry careers are flourishing, most of the top places on our list are computer science and information technology hubs. Opportunities in other areas, such as aerospace, biotech and other science- and research-based fields are most popular in the South’s Research Triangle and in Huntsville.

Note: SA-New Braunfels ranked at #88. For full listing http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/cities/best-places-tech-jobs-2015/