CHARLOTTE, NC -- Who needs the Silicon Valley for those seeking jobs in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics professions? A new study has ranked cities in North Carolina among the the nation's top places to find jobs in STEM fields.

Financial data website WalletHub compared the hundred largest metro areas in 17 metrics to determine the best markets for STEM professionals. The data set ranged from per-capita job opening for STEM graduates to annual median wage growth for STEM jobs to projected demand for STEM workers by 2020.

What makes the findings significant is that STEM careers today pay higher salaries and have far fewer instances of unemployment compared with other types of positions. STEM workers in 2015 earned an average annual wage of $87,570, nearly double the national average of $45,700 for all non-STEM jobs, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.