This Little-Known US State is a Hidden Gem for Tech Careers – See If Yours Made the List!

Posted by Arooj Ahmed
this-little-known-us-state-is-a-hidden-gem-for-tech-careers-–-see-if-yours-made-the-list!
This Little-Known US State is a Hidden Gem for Tech Careers – See If Yours Made the List!

TorGuard conducted a research to find out which states in the USA are best for tech-careers. When we think about high-tech jobs and digital careers, California’s Silicon Valley always comes to mind. But it isn’t the only place where techs are in high demand. The researchers conducted the study by keeping some key factors in mind like hourly salaries, local tech forces, local cost of living, and career opportunities in each state.

The research found that California remains the best state in the USA for tech opportunities. It has an average of $64 hourly salary for techs techs with an average $142,270 annual salary. You may think that second best state for tech careers would be bigger states like New York or Florida, but it’s actually Virginia. Researchers found that Virginia has the second highest job opportunities for tech experts, with Washington coming in third place. Washington offers the highest number of tech jobs for every 1,000 jobs in the state.

The fourth and fifth place was for Maryland and Colorado. Connecticut, which was the 10th best state for tech opportunities, has the most free tech events. Other states in the top ten included Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas and Utah. New York was the 11th best state for tech jobs while Florida was 12th.

On the other hand, the states which had the least amount of tech opportunities were Louisiana (46th), Kentucky (47th), Wyoming (48th) and Mississippi (49th). The state which would be the hardest to find a tech career in is West Virginia. According to researchers, Virginia had a very low cost of living, with low salaries and almost no tech and business events.

Rank State Mean annual wage for tech jobs Median hourly wage per tech jobs No. of jobs per 1000 jobs Total tech employees No. of business establishments No. of job postings per 1,000 people Free tech events per 1,000 people Cost of living as per tech salary Total score
1 California 1 1 4 1 1 4 5 34 75.83
2 Virginia 6 6 2 3 17 1 26 45 66.19
3 Washington 2 2 1 2 11 14 7 46 65.74
4 Maryland 4 4 3 4 22 2 10 33 63.89
5 Colorado 7 7 5 6 16 3 9 44 58.21
6 Massachusetts 3 3 6 9 9 6 16 4 57.38
7 New Jersey 8 8 8 8 19 5 15 32 51.40
8 Texas 16 17 11 7 4 7 8 39 49.27
9 Utah 19 21 7 5 23 8 6 28 47.84
10 Connecticut 11 11 22 21 25 15 1 20 47.53
11 New York 5 5 19 15 3 34 20 22 47.37
12 Florida 21 23 21 10 2 16 3 19 45.36
13 North Carolina 12 12 9 12 6 11 19 42 44.46
14 Arizona 19 20 13 11 20 12 17 17 41.99
15 Georgia 18 19 15 14 13 13 13 41 40.51
16 Delaware 9 9 12 27 43 17 22 40 40.09
17 Oregon 13 13 18 18 14 22 23 14 39.83
18 Rhode Island 10 10 10 29 39 19 32 26 38.51
19 New Hampshire 14 14 14 22 36 23 38 13 37.81
20 Minnesota 15 15 16 13 15 24 36 38 37.68
21 Illinois 17 18 32 16 7 9 21 43 37.07
22 New Mexico 20 22 27 34 35 36 2 35 36.81
23 Michigan 29 31 24 26 5 20 14 27 34.70
24 Idaho 15 16 34 33 31 10 33 23 33.81
25 Pennsylvania 23 25 25 24 10 40 31 21 32.72
26 Kansas 27 29 20 20 32 13 42 36 32.40
27 Nebraska 33 35 17 17 37 18 27 29 32.31
28 Ohio 25 27 26 25 12 33 40 29 31.60
29 Hawaii 24 26 39 37 39 27 35 2 30.82
30 Alabama 25 27 28 30 24 21 24 37 30.75
31 Wisconsin 34 36 23 19 27 35 18 15 30.73
32 Missouri 38 41 21 23 18 26 29 25 30.42
33 Tennessee 36 39 33 29 8 41 11 24 29.74
34 Nevada 28 30 44 38 29 29 4 11 29.50
35 Vermont 22 24 29 42 42 31 42 5 28.87
36 South Carolina 31 33 31 28 21 41 25 17 28.73
37 Iowa 30 32 30 29 33 25 44 31 27.51
38 Oklahoma 40 43 36 32 32 30 12 29 26.65
39 Indiana 39 42 38 31 28 38 34 16 25.06
40 Alaska 32 34 45 46 46 32 30 3 24.58
41 South Dakota 42 46 37 35 44 28 39 9 23.64
42 Maine 45 37 35 36 38 37 37 1 23.30
43 Arkansas 43 47 40 39 34 39 46 12 21.04
44 North Dakota 41 45 41 40 45 42 41 10 20.90
45 Montana 37 40 42 43 41 47 43 6 20.42
46 Louisiana 26 28 48 45 30 44 45 30 20.20
47 Kentucky 43 48 43 41 26 45 48 8 19.12
48 Wyoming 35 38 47 48 45 46 28 18 18.26
49 Mississippi 44 49 46 44 39 43 47 7 15.20
50 West Virginia 45 44 41 47 40 48 49 1 14.75

This study ranked U.S. states for tech careers using eight weighted metrics. Each metric was scored, scaled, and totaled to determine the rankings. Factors included wages, job numbers, postings, tech businesses, free events, and cost of living, with assigned weights reflecting their impact.

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