As a coder living in St. Louis, I can say that this hasn't been my experience at all. There is an exceptionally high demand for coders around here. Barely a week goes by without someone trying to poach good programmers. Its not necessarily all sexy startups, but there is an excellent market for programmers in general.

We have a fairly good startup scene (though obviously nothing on SF) and a large number of more traditional corporate employers of programmers like Express Scripts, Monsanto, Wells Fargo, Scottrade, Ameren, Charter, Anheuser Busch, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman. There is also an exceptionally active biotechnology scene here.

I'm hoping this is the case in a year or so, when I plan on moving back to Stl from Atlanta. I know a few guys doing C# and f# work in stl. They seem to think prospects are pretty good.

Craigslist doesn't hold the same clout outside of the Bay Area in my experience. Almost never the best place to look for anything.

This is true. Craigslist posters are typically looking to get someone dirt cheap here. The real job listings for here are on Monster.

Not quite. We've got about 5000 programming jobs or so available here. Of course they're not all with the latest technology, but things like http://launchcodestl.com are working to help fill these open positions.

I haven't commented on a Hacker News item for a long time. As a programmer who's constantly looking to expand his team with someone I can trust to do good work, we can't hire them fast enough. The tech scene here is rapidly growing and it's not hard for a good programmer to land a spot in a tech company here.

It seems if you're half-good at just about any language, you'll get an email a week from a recruiter from a decent company. Definitely not as many startups, but many interesting projects to choose from. And remote work while living in a (comparative) mansion in the Midwest is a good selling point :)

St. Louis seems to be one of the more attractive places if you can swing security clearance. A lot of defense contractors in the area due to being a larger city plus having a couple large bases nearby.