The tech industry is growing fast, with an estimated 182,000 jobs added to the industry in 2016 alone. This brings the total number of jobs to around 7.3 million and accounting for an estimated eight percent of the U.S. economy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is also predicting that tech jobs will account for 2.4 percent of all jobs added annually to the economy.

With the tech sector growing so rapidly, and with many cities already considered tech hubs, will there be a change in where these jobs will be booming in the next five years? The answers may not surprise you if you’re a part of the industry, but to those seeking new employment opportunities, here are the five states in which tech jobs are slated to grow in the next five years.

 

Texas

Austin, Dallas, and Houston are the primary tech hubs in Texas, a state renown for both its can-do attitude and its love for start up companies. For those interested in working in emerging technologies, such as cloud computing and machine learning, Austin is a great place to settle. Houston is currently on the hunt for more software developers and engineers as well, while Dallas is currently a hub for established technologies and engineering companies.

 

Colorado

Colorado has a booming tech community and is well known for housing some of the most interesting companies working in big data and app development. Most of these companies can be found in Colorado Springs, Denver, and Boulder along with other major cities across the state. However, the real advantage is found in the state’s entrepreneurial ecosystem: start-ups will find that Colorado is very welcoming to start ups, including a concentration of VC firms in Boulder and an influx of business-minded tech entrepreneurs that find the state very welcoming to bringing in new jobs.

 

Utah

Utah is currently considered a prime state for tech employers and employees; some of the best places to live in Utah, including Provo, are also tech hubs that support web developers, software engineers, and coders. The state is also home to ancestry.com, a genealogical website that is undergoing massive growth and is actively hiring for tech positions. Although not considered a startup haven, Utah is building a reputation for itself as a state that supports new and emerging technologies.

 

Michigan

Although Michigan is probably best known to Americans as the home of auto industry, the state is also currently leading in tech specialty job growth. Detroit, in particular, is seeing a boom in emerging technologies, such as driverless cars, while Ann Arbor is growing in engineering research, data processing, testing labs, and computer systems design. The biggest pull for tech professionals to move to Michigan is thought to be the pay; in Michigan, the average tech wage stood at $84.800; while this is lower than the $105,400 national average, the cost-of-living in Michigan is significantly lower than in places such as Seattle, Silicon Valley, and Atlanta.

 

North Carolina

It should come as no surprise to anyone in the tech industry that North Carolina has made the list. The state is home to the Research Triangle, which is made up of the University of North Carolina State University, Duke University and UNC – Chapel Hill, which has long been a hub of developing technology for the country. Now, Research Triangle Park, a campus that currently hosts over 240 startups, is a major destination for tech professionals. With companies ranging from web developers to green technologies to information technology, this massive 7,000-acre compound is eager to take on as many tech employees as possible.

 

Technology drives almost everything in America; from banking and engineering to social media and online workflows, it is the single biggest driver of the success of the American economy. Although there are several great tech hubs that have not been listed, these five states are where the tech boom is headed next. Now all that’s left to do is to fill out a resume and start applying for tech jobs in these areas.