Published December 7, 2015 12:00AM
The Outdoor Life Is a Magnet for Tech Geeks
Capital is venturing out of Silicon Valley to the nation's coolest towns
Work-life balance isn't the only thing going for mountain towns (but it's a big one).
If there’s a single economic indicator of the health of the job market in a given location, it’s the number of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) jobs. The average annual salary for STEM workers across the country is $81,000 compared to $47,000 for other jobs, and STEM fields grew 11.4 percent between 2001 and 2015 compared to 4.5 percent for all other fields. With more than half of all STEM jobs in computer-related positions, it’s easy to assume that you have to move to tech meccas like the Bay Area and Seattle to get in on the rush. But as it turns out, growing number of towns offer both a large number of tech gigs and the ability to live an active lifestyle.