As the tech industry grows up, talent and funding are spreading out. That’s bolstering smaller cities all across the country.
“Silicon Valley and other tech hubs are losing the tech talent war.
Metro areas that consistently attracted huge numbers of tech workers have hit a turning point, according to fresh data from labor-market analytics firm Lightcast, crunched by D.C. think tank Brookings. The share of the nation’s tech workers who work in places such as Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Boston, New York, Los Angeles and the greater Washington, D.C. area is actually shrinking.
Driving this change are technology ecosystems cropping up throughout the U.S. that keep innovation and investment more local. In addition, non-tech companies are employing more tech workers than ever before, reducing the need for them to relocate.
On the winning side of that trade are places like Denver, Salt Lake City, Miami and Nashville. Three of the biggest winners are in Texas, with Dallas, Austin and Houston seeing some of the most significant gains between 2020 and 2022. Local boosters haven’t started calling it “Tech-sas” yet—but perhaps they should.
This trend has been gaining momentum for years, and was accelerated by the pandemic and the shift to remote and hybrid work. Until now, data suggested that while traditional tech “superstar cities” were adding more tech jobs, other cities far from those hubs were also adding such jobs.”
Check out the full article by Christopher Mims from the WSJ here.
Pictures via the WSJ and “Shelby Knowles”
