Menu
As the largest city in Maryland, Baltimore hosts bustling economic activity across industries. Baltimore has industrial roots dating back to the early 20th century when the city produced steel and ships. Famously, Baltimore is the home of Domino Sugar, a company whose trademark billboard is an icon of the city. Today, the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore defines its core industries as Cybersecurity, Life Sciences, IT, Logistics, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Agriculture, Energy, Education, Defense Technology, and Digital Health.
As the home of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore is already an important center of higher learning, research, and medicine. Loyola University, UMBC, and Towson are among other universities in the area.
Baltimore is also only an hour’s drive from Washington D.C. and some of the federal government infrastructure overflows from there. The FDA, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, U.S. Commercial Service, GSA, and OPM all have offices in Baltimore. These agencies, as well as navy operations that center around nearby Annapolis all have a need for skilled tech workers.
Since the recession of 2008, the unemployment rate of Baltimore has been steadily improving and had fallen to just 4% at the end of 2019. While unemployment increased, along with the rest of the country, during the covid-19 pandemic, jobs recovery began in August 2020 and unemployment has fallen sharply over the subsequent months.
Another sign of robust recovery is that house prices in Baltimore have increased by nearly 12% from 2020 to 2021. The city is made up of many historic neighborhoods and is dotted with hotspots for tourism and leisure. The inner harbor draws most tourist activity with waterfront restaurants and an impressive aquarium. Nearby Federal Hill is known for elegant row homes dating back to as early as the 1700s. The waterfront neighborhood of Canton was once an industrial center but has been reborn into a bustling hub of bars, restaurants and arts.
Glassdoor currently lists 60,000 job openings in Baltimore, which is awe-inducing considering the city’s population is only slightly above 600,000. Major employers include Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Under Armour, The Baltimore Sun, Morgan Stanley, Dell, Clorox, Leidos, Northrop Grumman, and the Discovery Channel. Baltimore also hosts a number of growing startups, including Protenus, a healthtech analytics platform; StraighterLine, an affordable provider of higher education; and ZeroFOX, a cybersecurity firm.
Baltimore has an especially high concentration of jobs in Computer & Information Research, Information Security, Network Architecture, Data Science, Network Support, Computer Hardware Engineering, Systems Administration, and HealthTech.
Salaries for these roles in Baltimore are significantly higher than the national average salary. Below you can see a salary breakdown for jobs across these sectors.
| Occupation | Average Salary |
|---|---|
| Computer & Information Research Scientists | $133,900 |
| Information Security Analysts | $112,870 |
| Computer Network Architects | $133,350 |
| Data Scientists | $113,670 |
| Computer Hardware Engineers | $121,510 |
| Network Support Specialists | $78,330 |
| Systems Administrators | $116,840 |
| Health Information Technologists | $71,850 |
| Misc. Computer Operations | $114,380 |
