If you’re working in information technology, Atlanta is a fine place to be.
A new study from internet of things company Kisi reveals that among IT graduates and professionals, Atlanta came ahead of other cities, including New York and Sacramento, Calif.
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The 2020 Best U.S. Cities for IT Professionals list analyzed a shortlist of 30 U.S. cities. It compressed a range of data into seven factors, counting average salaries, number of job vacancies and purchasing power among them. Reviewing work opportunities and the livability of each location, the study revealed which U.S. cities support the growing field of technology and the ability to keep the workforce necessary for innovation.
The findings for jobs like programmers and software developers led Atlanta to land at No. 8, with a total score of 68.38. The top five best cities for IT professionals were Austin, Texas, Seattle, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Dallas. They had scores of 73.25, 72.81, 71.99, 70.08 and 69.02 respectively.
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The scores were compiled based on calculations from factors in two categories: IT Environment and Business Environment and Livability. Each category had different factors taken into account for scoring.
IT Environment factors included average manager and director salaries along with IT job openings over total openings. Among Business Environment and Livability factors, cost of living, purchasing power and startup ecosystem were taken into account.
Atlanta is also home to hubs for companies that are hiring the most IT professionals in the country, including Deloitte, Amazon Web Services and Accenture. The came in at No. 1, 2 and 3 respectively.
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As a whole, Georgia lands in the middle among the states’ IT salary offers, ranging from $100,000 to $110,000. On average, IT managers in Atlanta earn $110,000 while directors in the field earn $143,000.
When it comes to cost of living scores, lower is better. Atlanta’s score was 58.39. Yearly employment growth was 2.67%.
