According to a recently released survey conducted by Emerson, heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVACR) contractors who desire high salaries and plentiful job opportunities should head to these states:

Ohio

Ohio tops the list with more than 1,400 certified technicians, a competitive median salary and almost 9,000 current openings. Ohio steals the title due to housing eight accredited trade schools.

California

California comes in second overall but tops the list when it comes to number of open positions (22,000), certified technicians, and the highest hourly wages. California’s second place raking is due to one accredited trade school.

Illinois

Illinois takes the bronze medal by boasting one of the highest median average salaries along with having five accredited trade schools and over 8,000 current openings.

Texas

Texas ranks high when it comes to number of openings and certified technicians but takes the number four spot due to having only one accredited trade school and a lower median hourly wage.

Florida

Florida is competitive with the states above when it comes to open positions and the number of certified technicians, but the state has some of the lowest median wages and only has one accredited trade school.

To compile the rankings, Emerson used HVACR salary and future employment data from the U.S. Department of Labor; trade school locations recognized by the Partnership for Air Conditioning, Heating, Refrigeration Accreditation; heating and cooling degree days calculated at DegreeDays.net; residential home values from Trulia, certified contractors by state from North American Technician Excellence (NATE) and current openings from HVACR Workforce Development Foundation.

Read the complete survey.