Adventure Towns as Tech Hubs

WHY adventurls touns MAK E THE BES TECH HUBS If you're looking for a high-paying job, you should move to an Outside town. Mountain burgs and cities with the perfect work-life balance aren't just good for skiing, biking, and hiking. In recent years, these metro areas have reinvented themselves as outdoor-friendly : tech alternatives to Silicon Valley. BOSTON STEM growth in Outside towns MASSACHUSETTS ii 11.2% $91.6k STEM Employment Avg. wage SEATTLE WASHINGTON iii 13.2% $100k STEM Employment Avg. wage ANN ARBOR MICHIGAN ii 11.9% $66.7 STEM Employment Avg. wage BOISE IDAHO i 7.2% $68.1k STEM Employment Avg. wage RALEIGH Cities all over the NORTH CAROLINA U.S. are making a mark with high employment rates in the science, tech, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. OAKLAND ii 10.3% $78.4* STEM Employment Avg. wage CALIFORNIA ii 9.5% $97k STEM Employment Avg. wage MADISON WISCONSIN SAN DIEGO ii 10.4% $68.6k STEM Employment Avg. wage CALIFORNIA ii 9.3% $89.1k STEM Employment Avg. wage Outside towns with a large proportion MINNEAPOLIS of STEM employees and their average salaries MINNESOTA SACRAMENTO 8.2% $80k STEM Employment Avg. wage CALIFORNIA 7.9% $82.5k STEM Employment Avg. wage WASHINGTON D.C. PORTLAND ii 12% $101k STEM Employment Avg. wage OREGON 8.4% $78.1k STEM Employment Avg. wage DETROIT MICHIGAN SALT LAKE CITY 8.9% $85k STEM Employment Avg. wage UTAH 7.3% $73.3k STEM Employment Avg. wage Out of the top 15 9. DENVER metro areas for COLORADO STEM jobs, 9 have made an BOULDER ii 9.1% $85.6k STEM Employment Avg. wage COLORADO iiii 16% $88.3 STEM Employment Avg. wage appearance om Outside's Best COLUMBUS 12 COLORADO SPRINGS OHIO Towns list. And 7.4% $75.5k STEM Employment Avg. wage COLORADO 8.8% $81.3k STEM Employment Avg. wage 12 are places we'd love to live. DURHAM NORTH CAROLINA HOUSTON iii 13.9% $86.2 STEM Employment Avg: wage TEXAS Expand that list to the top 45 metro areas, and 23 have been featured in 8.3% $88.2k STEM Employment Avg. wage 23 ATLANTA GEORGIA AUSTIN 7% $79.6k STEM Employment Avg. wage TEXAS ii 11% $76.8K Outside's Best STEM Employment Avg. wage Towns competition. ALBUQUERQUE NEW MEXICO i 7.7% $76.9k STEM Employment Avg. wage How STEM Jobs Are Different 10% STEM jobs account for more than 10% of all jobs in the U.S. The STEM field grew more than twice as fast as any other field between 2004 and 2014. Many STEM jobs pay wages that are nearly double the U.S. average. JOBS GROWTH AVERAGE WAGES 11.4% STEM $81,000 Other 4.5% $47,000 2004 2014 JOB SECURITY STEM workers are less likely to experience joblessness than their non-STEM SS counterparts IN CULDER Case Study Boulder is the leading non-Silicon Valley tech center in the U.S. Outside of Silicon Valley and Framingham, Boulder's STEM job ranking is higher than any other region in the country. 8 tech companies based in the Boulder area made it on Outside's 2014 Best Places to Work list. If you include lists from previous years, that number jumps to 12. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce 5th Foundation named Colorado the 5th best-prepared state to thrive in the rapidly progressing STEM-focused economy. Colorado ranked 5th in the nation for overall economic performance and 4th for both high-tech performance and innovation and entrepreneurship. chamber 24,000 Boulder County is home to nearly 24,000 STEM workers. $5m 40 companies in the area have raised more than $5 million in funding. In 2014, 53 Boulder- based companies raised a total of $320 million. $320m The biggest established tech companies based in Boulder: Google Microsoft ORACLE' Aol. IBM. Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Census Bureau. Sperling's Best Places. STEM: Good Jobs Now and for the Future by David Langdon, George McKittrick, David Beede, Beethika Khan, and Mark Doms; U.S. Department of Commerce. Digital Companies; Built in Colorado. 2014 Annual Startup Report; Built in Colorado. Enterprising States 2015; U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. The Unlikely Cities That Will Power the U.S. Economy; Bloomberg Business.