The Portsmouth area is really booming the last few years. It's starting to get a little bit of a Bay Area style housing/infrastructure crisis brewing as well, albeit on a much smaller scale. But house prices are up significantly over just the past three years, and rents are worse. So many offices have gone into the former Pease Air Force that traffic is starting to be a real problem, compounded by the the never-ending construction on the Spaulding Turnpike bridges north out of Portsmouth.
It's not the sexiest tech company, but Liberty Mutual has a huge presence in the area and employs a significant number of people in IT.
I thought I read Liberty Mutual actually started a major layoff of their IT people the seacoast area (shortly after they advertised many IT job openings). Even people outside of IT were affected. I know of a business analyst who was given the option to take a code boot camp, or lose their job. From what I heard, many people in IT were given this option.
From what I understand, they are making a big shift towards a more devops-y process, so I can believe that a lot of the more traditional IT roles are not emphasized as much. I can't say I've noticed an increase in the number of job postings, but there's always been a ton of open positions at Liberty, at least for the last six or seven years I've been around the area.
It's not the sexiest tech company, but Liberty Mutual has a huge presence in the area and employs a significant number of people in IT.