10 Best Places for Technology Jobs in 2009

by Don Sears

This competitive-salary city for tech ranked “high in volume of tech job openings in early September and had an above-average ratio of tech openings to employees for many IT occupations, including computer programmer, software engineer and systems analyst.”

MIT, Harvard and 72 other colleges and universities in New England make Beantown a must-be place for technology workers of all stripes. “The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that programmers and software applications engineers in nearby Lowell, Mass., rank among the highest paid in all U.S. metro areas.”

NASA: We don’t have a problem. Well, there was that whole Enron debacle back in the day, but now, Houston has gotten over that and is home to many IT companies that cater to the specific technology needs of the energy sector. As the report surmises, “Houston ranks high for total tech job postings and has above-average ratios for tech job postings to employment in multiple occupations.” Energy is needed in all times, recession or not, and tech is there to help.

Houston isn’t the only city that has a NASA and aerospace presence. Huntsville, Ala., boasts a large research park, Cummings Research Park, and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “More than 300 companies in the area are focused on designing and producing electronics and computer-related technology, according to the Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County.”

Big city means big opportunities, but not only in financial services IT. Health care IT is expected to rise in the Big Apple. “A new report from the Center for an Urban Future finds that New York’s roster of health care providers, plus its flank of health technology companies, could make the city an ideal spot to capture health-IT dollars.”

Between Arizona State University, domain-registrar GoDaddy and a host of large offices from Microsoft, Oracle and smaller companies, Phoenix claims more than “4,200 high-tech companies and 81,000 jobs.” According to the report, Phoenix “ranks high in overall tech job openings and in the ratios of job openings to employment for several IT jobs.”

Historically known for a large military presence with the Navy and Marines, San Diego is a big college town and research in technology is big business here. San Diego is home to many startups and venture-capital-backed companies. As the article points out, salaries in San Diego are high: “San Diego also ranks fourth for tech salary pay, according to Glassdoor data, above the more expensive cities of Washington, New York and Boston.”

It’s the closest to Silicon Valley, so no surprise here, though the Valley has been hit hard by the recession, especially in chip manufacturing. The San Francisco metropolitan area is faring better with software development and smaller startups. It’s poised to return from the recession with its proximity to the big players of technology including Google, Oracle and Apple.

It’s not all about Microsoft, with more than 700 tech companies and groups. “Seattle had among the highest demand ratios for computer software application engineers relative to supply. This city’s tech employees rank third highest in average pay, higher than considerably more expensive cities such as New York and Washington.”

This recession is spurring some expansion of federal programs aimed at improving the country’s infrastructure, green energy and security—all requiring a large presence of technology workers. More than 11,000 technology jobs are expected to be filled in D.C. by 2012.