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Job outlook for computer science teachers in the United States
Computer science teacher job growth summary. After extensive research, interviews, and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
The projected computer science teacher job growth rate is 12% from 2018-2028.
About 159,400 new jobs for computer science teachers are projected over the next decade.
Computer science teacher salaries have increased 10% for computer science teachers in the last 5 years.
There are over 5,164 computer science teachers currently employed in the United States.
There are 72,662 active computer science teacher job openings in the US.
The average computer science teacher salary is $50,627.
Are computer science teacher jobs in demand?
Computer science teacher job and salary trends over time
Computer science teacher jobs over time
Computer science teacher job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 5,164 | 0.00% |
| 2020 | 4,427 | 0.00% |
| 2019 | 4,368 | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 4,454 | 0.00% |
| 2017 | 4,427 | 0.00% |
Average computer science teacher salary over time
Computer science teacher salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $50,627 | $24.34 | +0.4% |
| 2025 | $50,414 | $24.24 | +3.6% |
| 2024 | $48,662 | $23.40 | +4.6% |
| 2023 | $46,537 | $22.37 | +1.4% |
| 2022 | $45,910 | $22.07 | +3.6% |
Computer science teacher jobs by state
Most common states for computer science teachers
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 211 | 30% |
| 2 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 261 | 19% |
| 3 | Maryland | 6,052,177 | 1,084 | 18% |
| 4 | Montana | 1,050,493 | 185 | 18% |
| 5 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 1,115 | 16% |
| 6 | New Mexico | 2,088,070 | 325 | 16% |
| 7 | Delaware | 961,939 | 143 | 15% |
| 8 | Vermont | 623,657 | 93 | 15% |
| 9 | New Jersey | 9,005,644 | 1,259 | 14% |
| 10 | Colorado | 5,607,154 | 807 | 14% |
| 11 | Minnesota | 5,576,606 | 800 | 14% |
| 12 | Illinois | 12,802,023 | 1,660 | 13% |
| 13 | Nebraska | 1,920,076 | 256 | 13% |
| 14 | Wyoming | 579,315 | 76 | 13% |
| 15 | Virginia | 8,470,020 | 1,023 | 12% |
| 16 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 449 | 11% |
| 17 | Iowa | 3,145,711 | 332 | 11% |
| 18 | Kansas | 2,913,123 | 328 | 11% |
| 19 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 119 | 11% |
| 20 | Pennsylvania | 12,805,537 | 1,225 | 10% |
Most common cities for computer science teachers
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Burlington | 1 | 4% | $62,990 |
| 2 | Frankfort | 1 | 4% | $41,480 |
| 3 | Rockville | 2 | 3% | $65,635 |
| 4 | Annapolis | 1 | 3% | $66,460 |
| 5 | Stamford | 2 | 2% | $69,585 |
| 6 | Perth Amboy | 1 | 2% | $60,795 |
| 7 | Allentown | 1 | 1% | $69,075 |
| 8 | Brownsville | 1 | 1% | $50,461 |
| 9 | Little Rock | 1 | 1% | $39,385 |
| 10 | Silver Spring | 1 | 1% | $65,800 |
| 11 | Washington | 3 | 0% | $66,200 |
| 12 | Memphis | 1 | 0% | $43,455 |
| 13 | New York | 1 | 0% | $74,396 |
| 14 | Richmond | 1 | 0% | $60,471 |
| 15 | San Antonio | 1 | 0% | $48,056 |
| 16 | San Jose | 1 | 0% | $74,313 |
Computer Science Teacher job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of computer science teacher experts
Park University
SUNY Potsdam
University of Idaho
University of Colorado Denver
University of Mary Washington
Horacio Ferriz Ph.D.
Professor of Applied Geology and HydrogeologyWhat will help Computer Science Teachers increase their earning potential?
Horacio Ferriz Ph.D.: Take some of your basic requirements for a Teaching Credential in your junior and senior years at college (Adolescent Psychology, Foundations of Secondary Education), and make sure to log some hours helping a local STEM teacher in the classroom.
Professor Wen Hsin
Professor of Computer SciencePark University
Biological And Physical Sciences
What will help Computer Science Teachers increase their earning potential?
Professor Wen Hsin: I would advise them to be curious and enthusiastic in the field that they are in. When a person is curious and enthusiastic, every day can be a new day, and any minute can be a new minute. Also, don't reject an idea right out of the bat, but be open to whatever comes your way, and open to continuously learning. When one is open, new possibilities or opportunities can happen. In the field of CS, there is always something new or different to learn.
I consistently encourage students to do internships as soon as they are ready in school. Hopefully a graduate has already had some internship experience by the time they graduate so that they have better ideas of what they want to do when they go out to the society, thereby mitigating intimidation from the unknown.
Furthermore, CS is not all about technologies, but also about the soft skills (such as communications, team work, adaptability, ...). In class, we do group lab work and discussions to build their soft skills. They will need to continue to build their soft skills. I know that a lot of companies are willing to hire graduates with strong soft skills because they can train other (hard) skills the way they want. So, even if you are not the best hard-skill person in the group, as long as you have excellent soft skills, you can still excel in the field of CS.
What skills stand out on Computer Science Teacher resumes?
Brian Ladd: Evidence you can teach the introductory courses. The introductory sequence is difficult for students, so the instructor has to have multiple ways of explaining things and a good handle on a lot of homework problems.
If the school uses a particular programming language, knowing that (and it being more than just a bullet on the resume).
Experience writing computer games will make a resume stand out. Having used them to teach is an even bigger boost.
What soft skills should all Computer Science Teachers possess?
Brian Ladd: Writing in standard English. This applies to technical writing, memos and proposals, and even student feedback. In getting hired, your cover letter needs to be correct (hiring committees are looking for reasons to not read the rest of your materials).
What hard/technical skills are most important for Computer Science Teachers?
Brian Ladd: Knowing the right programming language(s).
I am biased in wanting a general CS instructor to have a good grasp of what the operating system is doing (I am a systems guy). This makes explaining files, multiprocessing, and safe concurrency easier, even if students do not tax your knowledge.
What skills will help Computer Science Teachers earn the most?
Brian Ladd: I think the ability to write clearly and explain your experience in the cover letter and then teach clearly, using technology appropriately while teaching, are things that will help with early salary offers.
I am not an expert on how to maximize earnings. Just ask my bank. That said, over time, the skill that has kept my teaching fresh and relevant is a willingness and desire to keep learning new technology and find ways to work it into my classroom.
Robert Rinker Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Associate ChairUniversity of Idaho
Department of Computer Science
What skills stand out on Computer Science Teacher resumes?
Robert Rinker Ph.D.: There have been several new research areas that have emerged in the last few years - data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, software for robotics, cybersecurity. Many of these areas didn't exist in their present form just a few years ago. So new faculty with one or more of these skills are in demand. More experienced faculty that have been in place for a few years (like me!) don't have these newer skills.
What soft skills should all Computer Science Teachers possess?
Robert Rinker Ph.D.: I think the traditional view of CS people is they are holed up in padded cells and don't interact with other people. That is a very wrong perception. CS professionals are problem solvers, and they must communicate with non-CS "customers" to understand the problems. Several recruiters have mentioned that a candidate's technical skills are easy to discern from a resume, but their soft skills are much more difficult to determine - they have to be determined from face-to-face interviews. Perhaps the most difficult skill in problem-solving is to listen carefully and not try to impose a solution to the problem right away.
What hard/technical skills are most important for Computer Science Teachers?
Robert Rinker Ph.D.: As I mentioned already, employers are interested in emerging skills. However, in order to understand the new skills, a good fundamental background is also necessary.
What skills will help Computer Science Teachers earn the most?
Robert Rinker Ph.D.: The good news in Computer Science is that the job market is so good that anyone who is halfway decent will get a very good job. However, more than in the past, the new topics in CS are most relevant. Part of the reason for this is that these new topics have become "buzzwords" with the general public, so they are very visible. As a result, employers are especially looking for them and are willing to pay top dollar for them.
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Computer Science Teachers?
Joshua French Ph.D.: Absolutely, and in different ways. The pandemic has changed the playing field in terms of winners and losers.
Companies that experienced increased demand for their services (e.g., Zoom, Amazon, Target) during the pandemic can increase the size of their data teams. Companies that rely on crowds of people (e.g., travel, some types of marketing) may be seeing cutbacks or furloughs. It seems likely that the winners will further consolidate their gains to move into new markets. I expect that this will change the kinds of companies hiring data teams for quite a while.
A major change is where we work. While there will always be a need for corporate offices of some sort, employers and employees are experiencing the benefits of working remotely. Companies won't need to lease huge offices to house their employees, while also saving on supplies and utilities. I suspect that companies will be much more open to remote employees in the future. Employees also realize the tangible benefits of not having a commute and may not be as willing to move for a job. Combining those two factors, graduates will have much more freedom about "where" they can work. If I can conveniently work for companies across the country from the comfort of my home, then my job and career options are greatly expanded.
Current graduates will need to be very careful about salary and compensation moving forward. I have heard conflicting reports about whether job offers are comparable to what was available prior to the pandemic. While some opportunities are as strong as pre-pandemic, I suspect that with recent furloughs, there is more employee demand for new jobs than the supply of new jobs. What this means is that employers can reduce their salary offers because the pool of laborers willing to work for less is greater. A person who takes a lower-paying job will need to be more proactive in climbing the ladder and willing to change companies to improve salary and benefits. The fastest way to increase your salary is to move to a new job that is willing to pay more. This will be more important for recent graduates. Many articles have shown the challenges faced by millennials taking jobs right out of the Economic Crisis of 2008-2009. They entered the market with lower pay and have struggled to break out of the cycle of being underpaid. That could easily happen to current and recent graduates without effort.
Are there any particularly good places in the United States for Computer Science Teachers to find work opportunities?
Joshua French Ph.D.: With employers increasingly allowing their employees to work from him, particularly in knowledge-driven jobs such as statistics, the physical location of a job won't be as important in the future. However, you can expect that the majority of jobs will still be in larger cities with large tech and corporate presence. In the immediate future, states allowing companies more flexibility in operating normally will see a relative increase in the number of statistics jobs, as companies will be able to increase the amount of business performed in those areas.
How do you envision technology impacting Computer Science Teachers in the next 5 years?
Joshua French Ph.D.: Technology will implement statistics in a multitude of ways.
One of the major impacts of technology on statistics is going to be the ability to effectively measure new things, measure them at a higher resolution or with more accuracy, and to obtain more measurements much more inexpensively. Statistical models can be no better than the data that are used to build them. While many focus on the overall volume of data, such as tech companies being able to rapidly compile petabytes of data, I don't anticipate that having a huge impact on statisticians with the exception that our methods must scale dramatically better. What I'm more interested in is using technological improvements to get better measurements of things that were previously difficult to measure. Statisticians will be needed much more frequently in the future as investigators from medicine, physics, and sports are able to produce much higher quality data for which statistical models can be reasonably built.
The ability to work in both Python and R will continue to become more important. Statisticians have still favor R as a programming language, but the more general popularity of Python will require statisticians to become fluent in both languages. And while R continues to hold strong advantages over Python in terms of visualization, data manipulation, and cutting edge statistical models, the need to collaborate with others fluent in Python will require statisticians to expand their abilities in Python. It will be quite interesting to see whether the Julia language can also gain some real momentum in statistics and data science. On a technical level, the language has advantages over both R and Python. However, as a relative newcomer, it simply doesn't have the diversity of methods the other two systems offer, and since it still has a much smaller user base, its more difficult to collaborate with others.
The COVID pandemic is going to usher a wave of new technology attempting to make virtual collaboration easier. Right now, the height of collaboration for many mathematicians and statisticians is working in front of a whiteboard with a web camera pointed at them. While this will work for the short term, this has highlighted the need for more accessible options for collaboration. Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Slack will continue to incorporate new features making collaboration and consultation more interactive and seamless. Yet unavailable (or at least not widely known) technology will need to be adopted in mass to make these experiences close to as effective as in-person meetings. Having seen the promise of virtual collaboration and meetings during the pandemic, businesses will push to make these changes permanent to save incredible amounts of their budget that was previously spent on flights, hotels, per diem, etc. Statisticians are going to need to educate themselves in these areas to keep up with the rapidly changing world of online collaboration. We've been quite comfortable in our patterns for many years, but that is going to change rapidly.
Janine Davis Ph.D.
Associate ProfessorUniversity of Mary Washington
College of Education
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Computer Science Teachers?
Janine Davis Ph.D.: For our teacher education graduates, the impact of the pandemic will most likely work in their favor when it comes to finding jobs-the pandemic has led to many retirements, which will mean that we will need even more teachers to fill those empty positions. At the same time, the advent of increased virtual learning means that it will no longer be an option that teachers know and use technology, including teaching online and using learning management and data analysis systems-those skills will almost certainly be a non-negotiable for future teaching positions. Finally, I think that this event has highlighted the importance of working as part of a team of teachers and other school leaders.