Tucson Ranked No. 21 In STEM Jobs Among Largest U.S. Metros

TUCSON, AZ — A new study from WalletHub ranks Tucson as No. 21 on its list of the best STEM job markets among the largest 100 U.S. metro areas. The study rated each metropolitan area based on a total score for: quality of life, STEM friendliness and professional opportunities. To compute the scores in those three categories, 21 metrics were factored in.

For quality of life, housing affordability in addition to recreation-, family- and singles-friendliness were the metrics used.

STEM friendliness factors included the number of men versus woman in STEM jobs, invention patents per capita, tech meetups per capita, quality of engineering universities, number of best engineering schools and mathematics performance, among others.

In the professional opportunities category, factored-in metrics included STEM employment growth for 2018 versus 2015, percentage of the workforce in STEM jobs, the number of tech job postings, annual STEM workers’ median wage, and wage growth for STEM workers in 2018 versus 2015, among other factors.

Tucson’s overall No. 21 ranking had these scores factored in:

Professional Opportunities rank: 29

STEM-Friendliness rank: 39

Quality of Life rank: 27

Total score: 57.12

Just ahead of Tucson on the study was Worcester, Mass., with a total score of 57.30, while Los Angeles came in right after Tucson, with an overall score of 56.55.

The study’s authors said the highest score possible was 100; however, the No. 1 ranked STEM job market on the study was Seattle, which earned a total score of 71.78. Cape Coral, Florida, was ranked the lowest at No. 100, with a total score of 25.77.