Tech Jobs Are Surging In These 10 States If You’re Looking For One

Why The Demand For Tech Jobs Matters

Last year I wrote a story for Forbes.com that described the massive layoff of tech workers in the U.S., followed by how they successfully pivoted careers amid the AI-driven layoffs, finding higher-paying careers in unexpected sectors.

But new research in 2026 reveals a less-promising story. Dice’s latest 2026 Tech Insights Report shows that tech professionals are facing a major contradiction right now. About three out of four say they plan to switch employers within the next year, yet fewer than half believe they’ll actually land a better job.

Burnout has doubled, daily use of AI has increased fourfold and layoffs have affected roughly two-thirds of the workforce either directly or indirectly. At the same time, optimism about the tech industry’s long-term outlook has fallen sharply—from 80% to about 60%.

Behaviors that once signaled ambition—frequent job changes, investing in new skills and staying agile in your career—now often reflect something else: workers trying to protect themselves in an uncertain market where staying in one place can feel more dangerous than moving on.

Here are the key findings from the Dice research:

• 75% of tech professionals say they plan to switch employers in 2025, but only 41% feel confident they could secure a favorable new role.
• 47% of tech professionals report feeling burned out, and 70% of those experiencing severe burnout are actively job searching.
• Job stability has become number two reason tech professionals are considering a move – surpassing career growth for the first time.
• 80% say they’ve applied to a “ghost job” in the past year, and over half applied to jobs beneath their skill level to stay employed.
• Confidence in tech’s long-term growth has dropped to 60%, down from 80% in previous years, while concern about decline has nearly tripled.

The report suggests the talent pool is more mobile than in past years, but many candidates are making moves out of worry rather than confidence. For staffing firms, that means plenty of motivated job seekers, but they’re harder to convince and close.

For employers, the risk of losing talent is rising even while competition for new hires grows more intense. Companies that truly understand why tech professionals are considering a move—and how to address those concerns—will have the edge in attracting and keeping the people others fail to secure.

To the rescue, Unit4 researchers, who wanted to answer a simple question tech professionals are asking right now. Where are companies hiring the most tech workers, and where is the demand actually concentrated?

So they reviewed hundreds of thousands of LinkedIn job postings at the state level across 20 technology-driven industries. Then, the researchers identified which of those postings were relevant to the tech industry.

To do that, they used a set of technology-focused industries, including areas like software development, IT services and consulting, cybersecurity, data services and other tech-adjacent categories. Next they calculated the percentage of tech-related postings compared to all postings in that state, which lets you compare states fairly, even when overall job volume is very different.

I wondered why it matters which states have the most tech job openings. Mark Baars, tech expert at Unit4, told me one reason is that tech hiring is no longer just a Silicon Valley story. He adds the good news is that there’s a strong demand tied to federal and defense work, cybersecurity, and enterprise technology needs in places that don’t always get labeled as traditional tech hubs.

“When a state has a higher share of tech postings, it typically means a bigger portion of its job market is being pulled toward digital skills, whether that’s engineering, data, security or the infrastructure that supports modern organizations,” he states.

10 States Where Tech Jobs Are Booming

“The goal wasn’t to guess which places feel ‘techy,’” Baars points out, “but to measure what employers are actively recruiting for.” He says comparing tech-related listings to total job postings in each state enabled them to rank the following states by highest concentration of tech hiring:

1. Virginia (14.4% of all postings) leads the nation, with the largest number of job postings (202,344) and the highest number of tech industry job postings (28,416).

2. Washington (12.36% of all postings) follows with 144,702 job postings and 17,885 of tech industry job postings, supported by major employers like Microsoft and Amazon.

3. New Jersey (12.03% of all postings) comes next with 145,212 job postings and 17,466 tech industry job postings, benefiting from strong fintech, software and cybersecurity growth.

4. New York (11.21% of all postings) is next in line with 293,623 job postings and 32,904 tech industry job postings, also benefiting from strong fintech, software and cybersecurity growth.

5. Maryland (11.05% of all postings) rounds out the top five with 123,790 job postings and 13,673 tech industry job postings, bolstered by defense and cybersecurity roles.

6. Nevada (10.82% of all postings) comes in sixth with 42,518 job postings and 4,600 tech industry job postings, showing an expanding tech market beyond traditional coastal centers.

7. Texas ( 10.58% of all postings) is seventh with 458,635 job postings and 48,519 tech industry job postings, also reflecting an expanding tech market beyond traditional coastal centers.

8. California (10.45% of all postings), despite ranking eighth in percentage, posts the highest number of tech listings overall (513,399), and 53,635 tech industry job postings.

9. Massachusetts (10.37% of all postings) ranks ninth with 171,056 job postings and 17,734 tech industry job postings, highlighting strength in biotech, robotics and agricultural technology.

10. Kansas (10.16% of all postings) completes the top 1o with 57,123 job postings and 5,803 tech industry job postings, also underscoring strength in biotech, robotics and agricultural technology.

The Future Of Tech Jobs

Baars predicts the demand for tech skills will continue to expand in the coming years. “As more companies adopt AI, they don’t just need people building models,” he asserts. “They need teams to integrate new tools into real workflows, secure systems, manage data responsibly, modernize legacy platforms and support employees through change.

The good news, Baars concludes, is that the demand for tech jobs will keep expanding over the coming years, not only in AI jobs, but in the roles that make AI usable, safe and scalable in everyday business.