Depending on the town and your specialty, you might be surprised. Not every place outside of the typical hot spots is corporate-fief. Specialization means you can have a good job market without the crowds causing traffic jams and running up the cost of living.

For example, you might not expect much good in Melbourne, FL. You'd be wrong if you happen to like low-level code (assembly, reverse engineering, vulnerability research, embedded development, etc.) or EE stuff. There are both larger companies (Harris, Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, and the http://advancedsecuritylabs.com/ part of Raytheon) and lots of startup-ups.

Since a specialized area (like Melbourne, FL doing low-level stuff) doesn't have too many nerds outside that specialty, the cost of living stays low. You can get a cheap house within a mile of work and there isn't much traffic.

I said what I get, not what does or doesn't exist. =)

What are the corporate-fief states? What does that mean, or what is that in reference to?

Roach-motel markets: you can get in, but you can't get out. More technically, monopsonistic or oligopsolistic factor markets, where the number of employers is small and thus control hiring in the local market. (Though I would expect Nebraska to be fairly competitive in hiring, given its surprisingly large number of finance and insurance companies.)

That's another possible way to look at it, but wasn't what I meant. The companies I know that went to Nebraska (or Idaho) pretty much had everything handed to them and they're not exactly states known for being big on protection of the middle and lower class. (People in favor of the approaches taken by these states might call them "business-friendly" climates; I think being friendly towards corporations, in an age where people cheer them for being amoral, is kind of stupid.) Monopsonic/oligopsonic concerns are another one to keep in mind, though.