Best States for IT Jobs: California
There’s no doubt that California remains the center of the high-tech world, with companies such as Apple, Google, HP, and Yahoo calling the state home. California employs the largest number of programmers, software engineers, and IT workers in any state, and it’s not even particularly close.
San Franicsco, Palo Alto, and the other cities in the Bay Area will remain hotbeds of innovation and job growth in the tech sector through 2016, but cities like San Diego and Orange County are making large gains in tech as well. California tech firms tend to pay high salaries as well, but the state’s high cost of living often eats up those advantages.
Estimated Employment, 2016:
• Application Software Engineers: 123,600
• Computer Programmers: 44,200
• IT Managers: 44,700
• Network and System Admins: 42,000
• System Software Engineers: 74,500
• Tech Support: 73,200