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Want a job in tech? Don't move to Arkansas

But contrary to popular belief, it's not San Francisco that holds the most promise in the U.S.
Written by Andrew Nusca, Contributor
baltimore-skyline-federal_hill_lowres

Job search engine SimplyHired has a new jobs report out for July 2012, and the outlook is looking up.

The service reports a 9.2 percent increase in job openings over June and a 13.3 percent increase from the same month a year ago. It's the second month in a row that the numbers are looking up.

Job openings increased in all 50 major metropolitan areas in the U.S.

The largest increases? Boston (16%), Pittsburgh (16%) and Salt Lake City (15%).

That's all well and good, you're thinking, but what about tech jobs? The folks at VentureBeat narrowed the focus and managed to pull just those numbers from SimplyHired's report.

Without further ado, the best and worst metro areas in terms of tech hiring right now:

Top 10:

  1. Baltimore
  2. Detroit
  3. Charlotte, N.C.
  4. Portland-Vancouver
  5. Seattle
  6. Pittsburgh
  7. Milwaukee
  8. Richmond, VA
  9. Raleigh
  10. New York City

Bottom 10:

  1. Newark, N.J.
  2. Birmingham, Al.
  3. Riverside, Calif.
  4. Little Rock
  5. Honolulu
  6. Boulder
  7. Huntsville
  8. Sacramento
  9. Indianapolis
  10. Orlando

To be clear, the best and worst markets in terms of absolute number of job openings closely mirrors the size of the city's population: so New York City is tops, followed by Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Dallas. 

Nonetheless, a nice reminder to look further afield for that next gig.

Photo: Baltimore skyline from Federal Hill. (Visit Baltimore)

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