STEM Occupational employment & Salaries, June 24, 2025
Chris Ramser, Vice President, Research
Joseph Morones, Director, Research
Insights
- STEM occupations account for over 11.1% of all jobs in the Austin MSA in 2024, making Austin the 6th most concentrated in STEM among large U.S. metros.
- Since 2019, STEM occupations in Austin have grown by 17%, adding 20,000 jobs and bringing the total number of workers to 139,820.
- Austin & Raleigh are the only two large U.S. metros with more than 10% of jobs in STEM paying an average STEM wage of less than $120K.
- Austin’s two largest STEM occupations are Software Developers (28,210 jobs) and Computer & Information Systems Managers (10,650 jobs).
- Austin, with a location quotient of 3.95, has the largest concentration of Sales Reps, Wholesale & Mfg, Tech/Sci Products, among the Top 50 largest metros.
New data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) last month provides estimates of 2024 employment and salaries by occupation. These estimates from the Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics (OEWS) program are available for the nation as a whole and for over 500 other areas.
Across all occupations, Austin’s average annual salary is $71,390, up by 3.2% from last year, and its median salary is $52,610, which is up 5.1%. The average hourly wage is $34.12 and the median is $25.29 in the Austin metro. Austin’s average salary is 6.3% above the national average and the median is 5.1% above the national median.
Part of the differences in average wages and salaries between different areas is due to variation in the mix of occupations prevalent in each area. Over 830 occupations are covered in the OEWS survey, with about 600 of those estimated for the Austin MSA. The OEWS survey is sent to hundreds of Austin-area employers every May and November and is vital as the foundational data needed to quantify pay and employment for occupations.
Associated with the survey are a pair of supplementary sets of OEWS data treating science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) occupations and occupations by the typical entry-level educational requirement. The following focuses on insights from the STEM tabulations.
STEM JOBS BY OCCUPATION GROUP
BLS classifies 105 occupations as STEM, including computer and mathematical, architecture and engineering, and life and physical science occupations, as well as managerial and postsecondary teaching occupations related to these functional areas, and sales occupations requiring scientific or technical knowledge at the postsecondary level.
In 2024, there were an estimated 139,820 STEM jobs[1] in the Austin metro, an increase of 17% or over 20,000 jobs since 2019. STEM jobs represent 11.1% of Austin’s total employment, while nationally, STEM accounts for 6.7% of total employment. The share of jobs in the broad Computer & Math occupational groups grew from 55.7% in 2019 to 57.4% in 2024. Likewise, the share of STEM Management jobs also grew from 5.5% to 9.7%, both indications of a maturing Austin technology scene.
TOP 10 METROS FOR CONCENTRATION OF STEM OCCUPATIONS
Among the 50 largest metros, Austin ranks sixth for percentage of jobs in STEM occupations. San Jose tops the major metros ranking with 21.1% in STEM. Las Vegas and Riverside have the lowest employment shares, 3.3% and 2.9% respectively.
The share of STEM employment in Texas has grown from 6.4% in 2019 to 7.1% in 2024. The range among the major Texas metros is wide. Dallas-Fort Worth’s percentage is 8.3% (ranking 13th), Houston’s is 6.9% (20th), while San Antonio’s is 5.4% (ranking 41st).
AVERAGE SALARY & PERCENT OF EMPLOYMENT IN STEM OCCUPATIONS
Across major metros, higher shares of STEM employment are associated with higher average salaries overall. The graph below shows a positive correlation between higher average salaries and greater concentration of STEM jobs. Metros that are plotted under the trendline and further to the right (such as Austin and Raleigh) have relative high concentrations of STEM jobs at a lower average wage. For Austin, the mean salary for STEM occupations was $117,890 and in Raleigh, it was $115,520. No other metros had over 10% of their jobs in STEM related fields and paid an average STEM wage of less than $120K.
STEM OCCUPATION SALARIES BY PERCENTILE
In Austin, STEM occupations earn a median annual salary of $104,540 compared to $48,420 for non-STEM occupations. Nationally, STEM’s median salary is $103,580 compared to $48,000 for non-STEM. The median STEM salary in Austin is 216% of the non-STEM salary—which is almost identical to the national premium that STEM jobs pay. STEM salaries are highest in San Jose, which has a median of $176,980, which is 378% of San Jose’s $66,860 non-STEM salary. That difference is the largest among the top 50 metros. Within the OEWS data set, the BLS calculates a set of wage percentiles for each occupation, providing a set of ranges where pay in that occupation is distributed.
HIGHEST & LOWEST PAYING STEM OCCUPATIONS
The three highest paid STEM occupations in Austin are Petroleum Engineers, Architectural & Engineering Managers, and Computer Information Systems (IS) Managers, while the three highest paid STEM occupations nationally are Computer IS Managers, Architectural & Engineering Managers, and Physicists. In Austin, Petroleum Engineers have a median salary of $184,250, which is 30% above the national median of $141,280 and Architectural & Engineering Managers have a median salary of $175,940, which is just 5% above the national median of $167,740. Computer & IS Managers have a median salary of $173,300, which is only 1% above the national median. Compared to San Jose, where Architectural & Engineering Managers and Computer & IS Managers are much more concentrated, Austin’s median salaries are 29% less and at least 38% less[2], respectively, than pay in San Jose.
The graph below shows the median annual salary of Austin largest STEM occupations including those that have at least 1,000 employees. Computer User Support Specialists are among the more numerous, but their median pay at about $60,000 is one of the lower paid Computer & Math occupations. The occupation’s median pay nationally is about $600 more than in Austin.
EMPLOYMENT IN AUSTIN’S LARGEST STEM OCCUPATIONS
Austin’s largest STEM occupation by employment is Software Developers, which is estimated at 28,210 jobs. As the graph above indicates, this occupation has a location quotient (LQ) in Austin of 2.09.
Location quotients are a useful byproduct of the survey’s employment estimates. The location quotient (LQ) represents 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. In this case, Software Developers make up 2.24% of employment in Austin compared with 1.07% of U.S. employment. Austin’s 2.24% rate is 2.09 times 1.07%, therefore Austin’s LQ for the occupation is 2.09. The occupation is also San Jose’s largest STEM occupation, but San Jose’s LQ for software developers is greater at 7.42.
STEM OCCUPATIONS WITH THE HIGHEST LOCATION QUOTIENTS
Among Austin’s top 10 STEM occupations, the one with the highest LQ is Sales Representatives, Wholesale & Manufacturing, Technical/Scientific Products. There are 9,490 employed in the occupation, which has a LQ of 3.95.
Computer Occupations, All Other, numbering 10,170, are also one of Austin’s top 10 STEM occupations, and the concentration is significant, at just under three times the national concentration. In San Jose, however, extraordinary concentration in computer and electronics engineering, is evident as two of their top 10 occupations include: Computer Hardware Engineers (LQ 16.73) and Electronics Engineers (LQ 6.94). These two occupations while present in Austin show lower concentration with location quotients of 1.17 and 1.82, respectively.
TOP STEM LOCATION QUOTIENTS FOR TEXAS MAJOR METROS
The highest LQ among the largest Texas metros is found in Houston where there are 5,080 Petroleum Engineers. Nationwide, there are only a total of 18,970 Petroleum Engineers, so Houston’s 12.71 LQ is quite impressive. However, it does not come close to that of Midland, which, while their number of employed (1,180) is only one-fifth that of Houston, the LQ is larger at 80.19. Nationally the occupation accounts for 0.01% of all jobs, while in Houston the rate is 0.16% and in Midland it is 3.12%.
AUSTIN STEM LOCATION QUOTIENT RANKINGS
Three Austin STEM occupations standout as having Top rankings amongst the 50 largest Metros, these include: Sales Reps, Wholesale & Manufacturing, Technical & Scientific Products (Ranked 1st), Computer Occupations, All Other (Ranked 3rd)[3] and Software Developers (Ranked 4th). The final three slides show the Top 10 metros with the highest concentration of jobs for those particular occupations.
Download a complete set of Austin & US Cross Industry Occupational Employment & Wages estimates in Excel.
FOOTNOTES
[1] It should be noted, when relying on employment estimates for individual occupations like these, that estimates are subject to the survey’s sampling error. The BLS publishes relative standard error (RSE) statistics for each employment estimate. The RSE is defined as the ratio of the standard error to the survey estimate. For example, a RSE of 10% implies that the standard error is one-tenth as large as the survey estimate. Austin’s total STEM employment estimate (139,820) has a relative standard error (RSE) of 1.0. In some cases, survey data is of insufficient quality to meet publication standards and employment estimates (and/or salaries) are suppressed.
[2] The BLS only reports a maximum salary up to $239,200 per year, which is less than the Median wage for Computer & IS Managers in San Jose.
[3] While the BLS does not specifically define this role, examples include job titles such as Web Administrators, Information Security Engineers, IT Project Managers, and Digital Forensic Analysts.
