Silicon Valley Still Dominates U.S. Tech Industry, Study Finds

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — Despite rumblings of an exodus of tech workers from Silicon Valley over the past year, the region still has the highest number of tech positions per capita in the country and IT professionals in the area on average make substantially more than in other parts of the country, according to a new study by VPNOverview.

The study, which compiled data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics last year, analyzed the current state of IT job growth across the country. Silicon Valley — defined as the San Jose, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara metro area — led the country in IT jobs per 10,000 residents with 706.

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, came in second with 526 tech jobs per 10,000 residents.

Of the nearly 2 million residents in Silicon Valley, 140,000 of them — or around 7 percent — worked in IT in some capacity as of 2020. The IT professionals with the highest mean salary in Silicon Valley were computer and research scientists at $170,890, which was about $40,000 higher than the national average. The second highest paid group, computer network architects ($161,950), made around $50,000 higher than the national average.

The next highest tally in California belonged to the San Francisco, Oakland and Hayward region, which had 320 IT positions per 10,000 residents.

Tech jobs are not nearly as plentiful elsewhere in California outside of the Bay Area, the study found. As a state, California ranks just 10th in the nation in IT jobs per capita, with 156 positions for every 10,000 residents. Washington D.C. topped the country with 581 IT positions per 10,000 residents, followed by Washington state at 252.

The study also found that information security jobs have grown the most out of all IT positions since 2015, increasing by over 183 percent. The retail trade sector had the highest salary bump with a 48 percent increase in pay as well as a 40 percent increase in jobs, making it the top industry for IT professionals.