12 Best States for a Career in Finance: 2023

With an average annual salary of $97,600, accounting and finance is an attractive sector for job-seeking college graduates, and a highly competitive one. People with a wide variety of degrees and backgrounds apply for finance positions. In a new study, Tipalti, an accounting software financial technology business, ranked the best states for a career in finance, based on factors such as number of jobs available, average salaries and university rankings. The study found that the Rocky Mountain/Far West region of the U.S. has the highest average starting salaries for graduates with degrees in either accounting or finance, followed closely by the Northeast Corridor. Out of all the finance jobs for college graduates, controllers have the highest average salary, $104,972 as of April. Entry-level tax preparers follow, with an average annual salary of $90,918. To identify the best states for a career in accounting or finance, Tipalti researchers took the number of job listings in each state as of March 28 from Indeed, and compared them with the population to get the number of jobs per 100,000 people. They determined the average salary for someone working in accounting and finance from Salary Explorer's list of salaries by state, as of March 29. For salaries that newly hired finance and accounting majors can expect, the researchers used the National Association of Colleges and Employers' winter 2022 salary survey. The university rankings in each state came from the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Where there was more than one university offering the subject, researchers took an average of every overall score. See the gallery for the 12 best states to pursue a career in finance, according to Tipalti's analysis. (Image: Shutterstock)