Employment Niche
Salaries are impressive here, yet Houston doesn't score high on list of Best Places for Tech Jobs

Although a new report found that Houston ranks 36th on a list of the 100 Best Places for Tech Jobs, the city boasts an average salary for those working in tech fields at just above $92,000 annually — much higher than the national average.
Personal finance site NerdWallet looked at the nation's 370 largest metropolitan areas to create a list of the Best Places for Tech Jobs — jobs which range from software and web development to computer and information research science. The site analyzed the number of jobs per 1,000 in tech fields, as well as tech workers' average income in relation to median monthly gross rent costs.
Houston's average tech job salary — $92,314 — is nearly 10 percent higher than the national average of $83,970 for those working in computer and mathematical occupations.
Houston's average tech job salary — $92,314 — is nearly 10 percent higher than the national average of $83,970 for those working in computer and mathematical occupations, according to 2014 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And the median rent in Houston is relatively low, compared to other to cities on the list, at $886 a month.
On the other hand, only roughly 30 jobs out of 1,000 in Houston are tech jobs, which led to the city's lower overall ranking on the list.
In comparison, the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area in California was designated No. 1 on the list, where 126 of every 1,000 jobs are in the tech industry and the average salary for those jobs is more than $130,000 annually, although the median rent for the area $1,640 a month.
The Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos area came in at No. 9 on the list overall, where roughly 59 out of every 1,000 jobs is in the tech field and the average annual salary for those jobs is $84,366 (with a median monthly rent of $1,000).
The Dallas-Plano-Irving area ranked No. 11 overall, where tech jobs make up 50 out of every 1,000 jobs and the average salary for such jobs is $86,579 annually (with a median monthly rent of $908).
Only five Texas cities were named to the list, including Fort Worth-Arlington at No. 75 and San Antonio-New Braunfels at No. 88.