Forbes: The Best Cities for Tech Jobs 2012

[^_^ 5,021]

No. 1: Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue

The Seattle metro area has posted 12% tech job growth over the past two years and 7.6% STEM growth, handily beating the performance of Silicon Valley. More important still to potential job-seekers, the Puget Sound regions has grown consistently in good times and bad, boasting a remarkable 43% increase in tech employment from 2001 through 2011 and an 18% expansion in STEM. Seattle weathered both recessions of the past decade better than most regions. The presence of such solid tech-oriented companies as Microsoft, Amazon and Boeing -- and lower costs than the Bay Area -- may have much to do with this.

No. 2: Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

Amid a surge in government spending, the capital area has enjoyed 20.6% growth in tech employment since 2001 and 20.8% growth in STEM jobs. Over the past two years, employment in both categories expanded about 4%. The Washington area boasts the second-highest proportion of tech and STEM jobs among the cities we surveyed, at 2.9 and 2.2 times the national average, respectively. There is a broadness to the tech economy in the greater D.C. area; as the Valley has become dominated by trends in web fashion, the Washington tech complex include substantial employment in such fields as computer systems design, custom programming, and private-sector research and development.

No. 3: San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA

Over the past decade, tech employment has grown by almost 30% and STEM jobs by 13% in this idyllic Southern California region, and over the past two years, by 15.7% and 6.5%, respectively. The area has seen strong growth in such fields as biotechnology and other life and physical sciences research.

No. 4: Salt Lake City, UT

Top Silicon Valley companies such as Adobe, Electronic Arts and Twitter have flocked to Utah for its lower taxes, more flexible regulatory environment, a well-educated, multilingual workforce and spectacular nearby natural amenities. Perhaps most critical of all may be housing prices: three-quarters of Salt Lake area households can afford a median-priced house, compared to 45% in Silicon Valley and about half that in San Francisco.

Salt Lake City has enjoyed a 31% spurt in tech employment over the past 10 years and 7.6% growth over the last two years. STEM employment is up 17.5% over the past 10 years and 4.5% over the past two.

No. 5: Baltimore-Towson, MD

The Baltimore metro area has benefited from the expansion in federal spending, logging 38.8% growth in tech jobs over the past 10 years and 17.2% growth in STEM.

No. 6: Jacksonville, FL

Jacksonville has clocked a 72.4% expansion in tech employment and 17.4% STEM job growth since 2001, mostly as a result of a boom in data centers, computer facilities management, custom programming and systems design occurring early in the past decade. The growth came off a low base -- the metro area still is below the national average in the proportion of tech and STEM jobs in its economy.

No. 7: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

Silicon Valley may boast the hottest tech companies and the highest proportion of tech and STEM jobs in the nation, but it's surprisingly far down the table in creating jobs over the past two and 10 years. In the current boom, tech sector employment has expanded 8.2% over the past two years, and it's up 10.2% since 2001, but STEM employment is down 12.6%.

No. 8: Columbus, OH

Columbus boasts an above-average share of tech and STEM employment, and benefits from being both affordable and business friendly. The Ohio state capital has enjoyed 31% growth in tech jobs over the past decade and 9.5% in the past two years, to go with an expansion of STEM jobs of 7.8% and 3.8% over the same periods.

No. 9: Raleigh-Cary, NC

Another relatively low-cost, low-hassle winner, the metro area grew its tech employment a remarkable 32.3% in the past decade and STEM employment expanded 15%.

No. 10: Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN

Nashville is more than just Music City. Growth in data processing and systems design fueled tech industry growth of 43% along with 18.5% STEM employment growth over the past decade. The proportion of tech and STEM jobs in the local economy is still relatively low though, at about 70% of the national average.

Methodology

To determine which metropolitan areas are adding the most tech-related jobs, we developed a ranking system that measures employment growth in the sectors most identified with the high-tech economy (including software, data processing and Internet publishing), as well as growth in science, technology, engineering and mathematics-related (STEM) jobs across all sectors. The latter category captures tech employment growth that is increasingly taking place not just in software or electronics firms, but in any industry that needs science and technology workers, from manufacturing to business services to finance. We tallied up tech sector and STEM job growth over the past two years and over the past decade for the 51 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the United States. We also factored in the concentration of STEM and tech jobs in those MSAs.

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/edgl45edji/methodology-4/

[^_^ 5,021]

For all the california naysayers....