Robert Half Technology Highlights 2016 IT Hiring Hotspots in U.S.

In the modern technology-driven economy, certified IT professionals can find work just about anywhere that they look for it. If you have a certain level of work experience and a strong array of certifications, then you can more or less toss a dart at a map and plan on finding some sort of gainful employment wherever it lands.

Now that the new year is here, U.S. technology professionals don't even need the dart, or the map. Robert Half Technology, among its portfolio of IT job search aids, has divided up the United States into nine geographic regions, and classified each region according to what sort of jobs are in demand there, as well as what IT-related industries are growing fastest.

For example, if you're considering a move to GoCertify's home turf, the eight-state Mountain region that includes Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, then it may intrigue you to know that .NET Developer is the most hotly demanded tech job in those states.

JavaScript Developer is next, followed by Help Desk, Database Administrator, and NetWork Administrator. Actually, if you're looking for work as a .NET Developer, then you have a lot of choices. It's also the most demanded job role in the West South Central region (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana) and the East South Central states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama.

(.NET Developer is the No. 2 role in eight-state South Atlantic region, and ranks No. 3 in the six-state New England region.)

As noted above, Robert Half also has a map that indicates which IT-driven or IT-related industries are growing fastest in the same nine regions of the United States. For example, in the five-state Pacific region (California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii), Healthcare is the fastest growing IT-fueled industry, followed by Technology, Construction, Real Estate/Property Management and Financial Services.

Healthcare, which is quickly becoming joined at the hip to data storage and data management, is also the leading IT-connected industry in five other U.S. regions, the previously described Mountain, West South Central, East South Central and New England regions, and also in the seven-state South Atlantic region (Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and the District of Columbia).

Financial Services is tops in the seven-state West North Central region (North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri) and the four-state Middle Atlantic region (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware). Manufacturing is the hottest growth industry with an IT link in the five-states East North Central region (Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio).