Roughly one in three tech professionals live in ten metropolitan areas. Although New York City and Silicon Valley continue to dominate the nation’s tech scene in many ways, vibrant tech scenes (paired with tech jobs) have sprung up across the country, making it a bit easier for tech professionals to find opportunities no matter where they go.
CompTIA’s State of the Tech Workforce 2024 report breaks down the top metro areas by tech employment:
If you incorporate San Francisco and San Jose, more than 700,000 tech professionals live and work in Silicon Valley—but we no longer live in a world where that tech hub dominates the national scene to the exclusion of all others. “Cities such as Boston, Seattle, New York, Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver and more, boast sizable tech workforces and notable job gain rates,” the report added. “This includes the sometimes ‘under the radar’ tech cities of Austin, Raleigh, Charlotte, Phoenix, Detroit, Orlando, and more.”
In that spirit, here are the metro areas that have enjoyed the strongest net tech job gains between 2022 and 2023:
Texas cities really dominate this list, and with good reason. Beginning in 2020, some of the biggest names in tech—including Oracle, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Tesla, and others—all erected either a new headquarters or a major facility in the state, inspired by an advantageous tax system and lower costs than Silicon Valley or New York City. Like many other up-and-coming areas, Texas features a pipeline of fresh talent from local colleges and universities, as well as robust infrastructure for investment and industry networking.
Meanwhile, cities such as Raleigh and Atlanta have been making steady, years-long progress at becoming significant tech hubs. Over time, these cities benefit from a virtuous cycle: the rise of local tech companies tends to attract more technologists and investment, which in turn leads to more tech companies deciding to call the area home, and so on. If you’re a tech professional looking for new opportunities, many of these cities could give you exactly what you need.
