2017 IT jobs report: Southeast region

This IT jobs report covers Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. (Also see our reports for the Pacific, Mountain, North Central, South Central and Northeast regions.)

Job market snapshot

Technology is big business in Georgia: With 17,000 technology companies, it’s the fifth-largest IT employment hub in the country, according to the state government’s High Demand Career Initiative (HDCI) program. In 2014, the state government formed the HDCI IT Task Force in partnership with employers across the state to address the acute shortage of technology workers.

Julia Davis, senior vice president and CIO at insurance provider Aflac in Columbus, Ga., has served on the task force for two years and can attest to the need for more technology professionals in the Southeast region as a whole. “We have to recruit more technologists,” she says, adding that employers are advocating for training and educational programs to produce more software and mobile developers, cybersecurity specialists and data analysts to meet demand. “We’re constantly battling each other for that skill set and talent,” she says.

Large companies either relocating to the Southeast or opening facilities in the region have fueled the demand for technology workers, Davis says — and those companies cut across industries, with the Southeast having big employers in various verticals from tourism (particularly big in Florida and along the coast) and manufacturing to retail and consumer goods. The Home Depot, Coca-Cola, Bank of America and the federal government are among the large employers in the Southeast.

Jason Hayman, a Baltimore-based research manager for IT staffing firm TEKsystems, says he counted more than a half-million online job postings in the region from April 2016 to April 2017, with companies in smaller cities such as Columbia, S.C., and Charleston, S.C., driving a lot of growth. Good workers, he says, “can take their pick of opportunities.”

Davis says the Southeast has some advantages for both workers and companies seeking talent: The region has a more “accessible” cost of living, particularly when compared to other tech hubs such as Silicon Valley, and its warm weather draws younger outdoor enthusiasts as well as older, experienced workers who are nearing retirement age but still eager to work.

IT salaries: National vs. Southeast region

Average 2017 total compensation (base salary + bonus)

See Computerworld's IT Salary Watch for lots more information about tech salaries this year.

Best Places to Work in IT 2017: Southeast region

Twenty-eight employers from the Southeast region were named to Computerworld's 100 Best Places to Work in IT list for 2017. Click on any company name to see its employer profile.

• AARP - Washington, D.C.
• Adventist Health System - Altamonte Springs, Fla.
• Aflac - Columbus, Ga.
• Altria Client Services - Richmond, Va.
• Booz Allen Hamilton - McLean, Va.
• Cancer Treatment Centers of America - Boca Raton, Fla.
• Carolinas HealthCare System - Charlotte, N.C.
• CFA Institute - Charlottesville, Va.
• Champion Solutions Group - Boca Raton, Fla.
• Cloud for Good - Asheville, N.C.
• DHL Express - Plantation, Fla.
• Erickson Living - Baltimore
• FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) - Rockville, Md.
• Halifax Health - Daytona Beach, Fla.
• H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute - Tampa, Fla.
• IPC (Independent Purchasing Cooperative) - Miami
• Johns Hopkins Medicine - Baltimore
• MetroStar Systems - Reston, Va.
• Miami Children's Health System - Miami
• Navy Federal Credit Union - Vienna, Va.
• NRECA (National Rural Electric Cooperative Association) - Arlington, Va.
• Palmetto Health - Columbia, S.C.
• Planned Systems International (PSI) - Arlington, Va.
• SAS - Cary, N.C.
• Sev1Tech - Woodbridge, Va.
• Southern Co. - Atlanta
• Ultimate Software - Weston, Fla.
• United Solutions Co. - Tallahassee, Fla.

See the full Best Places to Work in IT 2017 report.