Looking to start a software development career or already working the in the field?
These occupational statistics from the U.S. BLS provide the best insight into salaries and employment in your area. With these maps you can explore software engineering salaries and opportunities in your local area and understand salary expectations.
Software Developer Labor Statistics
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This interactive map shows the best locations for software developer jobs in the U.S. according to labor data from the U.S. BLS’s latest Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for May 2021.
Field Descriptions
Name of Metropolitan Statistical Area and primary state(s).
ID – Unique identification number of Metropolitan Statistical Area
Total Employment – Estimated total employment of Software Developer Occupations, rounded to the nearest 10 and excluding self-employed.
Jobs per 1000 – The number of Computer and Mathematical jobs per 1,000 jobs in the given area.
Location Quotient – the ratio of an occupation’s share of employment in a given area to that occupation’s share of employment in the U.S. as a whole. For example, an occupation that makes up 10 percent of employment in a specific metropolitan area compared with 2 percent of U.S. employment would have a location quotient of 5 for the area in question.
Hourly mean – Mean hourly wage in dollars.
Hourly range – Hourly 10th percentile wage to hourly 90th percentile wage in dollars.
Hourly median – Hourly median wage (or the 50th percentile) in dollars.
Annual mean – Mean annual wage in dollars.
Annual range – Annual 10th percentile wage to annual 90th percentile wage in dollars.
Annual median – Annual median wage (or the 50th percentile) in dollars.
# = indicates a wage equal to or greater than $100.00 per hour or $208,000 per year
* = indicates that a wage estimate is not available
** = indicates that an employment estimate is not available
This map uses the data for Software Developers as defined by the U.S. BLS. This may include the following titles reported by companies:
Application Developer, Application Integration Engineer, Developer, Infrastructure Engineer, Network Engineer, Software Architect, Software Developer, Software Development Engineer, Software Engineer, or Systems Engineer.
Software Developer Responsibilities
Research, design, and develop computer and network software or specialized utility programs. Analyze user needs and develop software solutions, applying principles and techniques of computer science, engineering, and mathematical analysis. Update software or enhance existing software capabilities. May work with computer hardware engineers to integrate hardware and software systems, and develop specifications and performance requirements. May maintain databases within an application area, working individually or coordinating database development as part of a team.
This is a generalized list of responsibilities provided by the US BLS and may not be all encompassing.
Areas with Most Software Developers
| Area | Total Employment |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA | 93,100 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | 73,860 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | 67,780 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA | 64,460 |
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 63,360 |