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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