Help Wanted: Applications Software Developers, Anywhere, USA

Are the metropolitan areas with the largest number of software developers the same places with the largest net increase forecast for software developers? Or the most rapid pace of growth over the past few years? Is it more difficult to fill developer vacancies in the largest metro areas compared to others? What cities do the most developers choose to live in?

Using our JobsEQ® technology platform alongside our newly unveiled Real Time Intelligence (RTI) tool, Chmura set out to answer these basic questions and others, and made some surprising discoveries in the process. Several “top ten lists” follow as they pertain to application software developers in regional labor markets across the United States.

For starters, what U.S. cities do the most developers choose to live in?

Seven of the top ten cities also happen to be at the heart of many of the nation’s largest metropolitan statistical areas. And making six-digit salaries in these places means many developers can probably choose to live in the inner city to be close to where they work. The cities where most developers reside that are not among the top 10 employers of developers includes Houston, Austin, and sunny San Diego.

It’s also useful to consider how concentrated software developers are in a region relative to the national average. This indicator, known as a location quotient, measures the percent of people in the region employed as applications software developers relative to the percentage in the nation. A value of 1.0 indicates that a region’s concentration is equal to the national average; a value greater than 1.0 indicates a higher than average concentration.

So, what areas have the highest concentrations of these prized workers?

Boulder, with its scenic mountains, is not too surprising since many developers can choose to work wherever they want. And the wealth of intellectual capital in the Madison and Raleigh areas makes their appearances understandable. But while Provo and Huntsville have no shortage of positive attributes relative to quality of life or regional brainpower, some might be surprised to see them make the list.

How about historical trends—what areas have been adding software developers over the past year at the fastest rate?

Hammond, Louisiana² has outperformed the rest of the nation by far! And Florida seems to have figured something out with four metro areas in the top ten. In fact, the southeast is well represented.

One year may not reflect a trend, so the next table identifies the metro areas where growth was sustained over the past ten years.