College graduates who are entering science, technology, engineering and math fields are more likely going to find lucrative employment and promising paychecks, because of the fact that STEM workers are currently in demand. They are also going to continue to be in demand in the coming years.
SmartAsset, a personal finance website just launched last week the results of their analysis on the best areas for STEM or science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers. They used the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2014 and studied the numbers from 53 US metro areas with at least 30,000 STEM workers, KQED reported. They compared each location's average pay, as well as the increase in the average pay to be able to come up with their list.
According to SmartAsset, their analysis looked into the metro areas that are furthest above the national median for both the STEM pay and income growth. So when it comes to pay, the ones who are topping the list are San Jose, CA, Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor OH, and San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City CA. This is just for the top three from a list of 25.
Aside from this analysis, WalletHub also ranked the best and worst areas for STEM professionals just last January. They have taken into consideration not just the pay, but also the quality of life and other professional factors like the job openings, transit, R & D budgets and housing. They have compared the 100 largest metro areas across 17 metrics, and here is the top 5 list based on their main findings. (The list below shows the rank, the location, total score, ranking based on professional opportunities and ranking on STEM-friendly environment).
1. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA 66.35 1 6
2. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 62.16 2 28
3. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA 61.83 3 29
4. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH 61.14 5 4
5. Springfield, MA 58.93 10 2
