Best under-the-radar cities for tech jobs at companies like IBM

• Tech workers have long flocked to San Francisco, New York City and Los Angeles for work.
• New data on job postings reveals under-the-radar tech cities in the Midwest and South.
• This map shows the cities with the largest increase in tech jobs in July.

The recession has led to big companies like Facebook and Google slowing hiring, but tech jobs are popping up in cities like Topeka, Kansas, and Lansing, Michigan.

According to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, technology skills are still in demand. In July, the technology industry added 239,000 jobs, marking a 20-month streak of job additions.

The Computing Technology Industry Association, also known as CompTIA, tracked which cities saw the most growth, revealing some under-the-radar cities for tech jobs.

New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco topped the list of metros with the largest increases in tech postings from June to July, with 2,348, 1,058, and 978 additional posts, respectively. But Topeka and Lansing rounded out the top five with 627 and 570 more posts, respectively.

Many of these under-the-radar cities are close to reputed institutions of higher education. Michigan State University in East Lansing has strong engineering and computer science programs, and IBM and General Motors have locations nearby. The University of Kansas in Lawrence near Topeka has some of the best technology programs in the state, and the area has a growing scene with economic-development programs like Go Topeka.

“The technology jobs market has repeatedly seen real and perceived economic weakness,” Tim Herbert, CompTIA’s chief research officer, said in a statement. “The data shows that for every layoff announcement, other employers are stepping in to take advantage of tech talent hiring opportunities.”

This map shows other cities with significant increases in tech jobs in July.

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