Jobs that require high levels of technical talent are moving to New Jersey in droves, according to a tech guru who specializes in coaching the founders and CEOs of software-as-a-service (SaaS) startups.
Ryan Allis, a Harvard MBA grad who launched multiple tech firms, the SaasRise coaching community and the Pulse tech news and data site in Austin, Texas, published a study titled “Where in the United States Are Different Tech Sectors Growing the Fastest?” The April 13 report, available on Pulse.com, tracks the clustering of firms in five growing tech sectors: computing infrastructure providers; custom computer programming services; software publishers; web search portals; and semiconductor and related device manufacturing.
Using an index based upon job growth, wage growth, total annual employment, average annual wages and rise in number of establishments, the Pulse study shows that four New Jersey counties rank among the top performers in the nation: Somerset County placed first in the category for computing infrastructure providers, data processing, web hosting and related services, while three other New Jersey counties ranked highly in the category known as web search portals and all other information services: Union County (No. 1), Essex County (No. 2) and Morris County (No. 6).
Allis says Somerset County’s No. 1 ranking is “driven by a sharp surge in employment from 2023 to 2024. Total annual wages jumped more than 400% year over year, fueled by its proximity to New York City without the high costs.” He also cited “strong fiber infrastructure and access to major financial clients” for firms operating in northern New Jersey.
Most of New Jersey’s top-performing counties are in the northern part of the state. Allis says, “That leads us to believe that close proximity to the New York metropolitan area certainly plays a part, but in comparison to New York, costs in northern New Jersey are more affordable, which will attract local talent that is seeking a better cost of living and more space outside the densely populated city.”
Real estate costs matter. Allis cites New Jersey office rents of $34.07 per square foot in the fourth quarter of 2025 versus office rents of $72.81 per square foot in Manhattan. Factor in taxes and the gap widens. “Companies in New York City not only have to pay a state tax; they also have to pay a New York City corporate tax and MTA corporate tax surcharge for a top tax rate of 17.44%,” he says. “New Jersey’s top tax rate is 11.5%.”
Allis says tech firms covet New Jersey’s talent. “As more companies offer remote and hybrid work models, this proximity to a larger market can also incentivize nearby top talent who may not want to move from the big city,” he adds.
This map shows the counties in New Jersey and surrounding markets growing the fastest in the 25-to-44-year-old demographic. Counties in green are showing the strongest growth in this cohort.
Source: Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service/UVA
Demographic researcher Hamilton Lombard of the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia analyzed why people are moving to New Jersey. He identified five factors influencing employers and workers to choose the Garden State:
1) New Jersey has one of the highest income levels in the country, ranking fourth in 2024, and the seventh largest share of its workforce with a bachelor’s degree.
2) As higher interest rates have slowed the national housing market, home prices in New Jersey have not risen as fast as in most Southern states, which may be helping slow out-migration.
3) “The shift in migration trends has been particularly noticeable among adults ages 25 to 44,” says Lombard. “In the first four years of the 2010s, New Jersey had the largest decline in its younger adult population in the country, but since 2020 its population age 25 to 44 has grown by over 100,000, nearly tying Tennessee in growth this decade. Since the late 2010s, New Jersey has risen to having the country’s fifth largest number of international immigrants moving to it each year.”
4) “Since the pandemic, counties across New Jersey have attracted white-collar workers from nearby job centers in New York City and Philadelphia — especially those with remote or hybrid schedules. That inflow has helped strengthen many local economies across the state.”
5) “The state has the second largest share of its workforce employed in transportation and warehousing among East Coast states, behind only Georgia.”
Site Selection’s Conway Projects Database confirms this: Sixty of New Jersey’s 127 corporate facility projects from January 2025 to March 2026 were distribution and warehouse facilities. Another 19 were headquarters. By number of facility projects, the top industry sectors in New Jersey over the past 14 months are transportation and logistics (27 projects); business and financial services (22); life sciences (21); machinery, equipment and construction (10); IT and communications (9); and consumer products (8).
Among the notable projects are Major League Baseball Network studios’ relocation to the former Marcal factory site in Elmwood Park from Secaucus — a 207,000-sq.-ft. deal that is expected to be ready in time for the start of the 2028 MLB season; Fidelity Information Systems signing a 30,000-sq.-ft. lease in Cherry Hill; and KPMG signing a 66,000-sq.-ft. headquarters lease in Morristown.
