Main image of article Oklahoma City, Phoenix Among Cities with Fastest-Growing Tech Jobs

With tech unemployment still at notable lows (1.7 percent in April), organizations across the country are desperate to hire talent. However, this hiring isn’t limited to the “major” tech hubs such as New York City and Silicon Valley; as new data makes clear, some smaller (and unexpected) cities have enjoyed a jump in open tech jobs.

This data comes from CompTIA, which regularly analyzes data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and Emsi Burning Glass (which itself collects and analyzes millions of job postings from across the country). Based on its analysis, here’s a list of the top U.S. cities that saw a rise in tech job postings in April:

Oklahoma City, San Antonio, and Phoenix aren’t hiring nearly as many technologists as New York City, Washington, DC, or Seattle, but the demand for tech talent is certainly on the rise. It’s also worth calling out Dallas, which has been building a solid reputation as a tech-friendly city, thanks in large part to Texas’s low tax rate (especially compared to that of California) and business-friendly environment. Even if a city doesn’t host a major tech company, more organizations of all types have a fiery need for technologists who can do everything from build web pages to maintain mobile apps and tech stacks.   

While New York remains the top city for tech openings at the moment, Washington, DC is clearly making an aggressive run at the top spot. The presence of the federal government (and lots of federal contractors) as well as mega-companies like Amazon (which is building its enormous HQ2 headquarters right across the river in Virginia) means continual demand for all kinds of technologists, from cybersecurity experts and software developers to specialists in machine learning. But with New York also expanding its tech opportunities at an aggressive clip, it might take quite a bit for another metro area to take the top slot.