Boston and Austin have the mix of high-tech jobs most similar to those in Silicon Valley, making the two tech hubs the Valley's "closest cousins," according to a new report by Austin-based jobs site Indeed.
While San Francisco, just down the road from San Jose, is the most similar and, along with the Valley, has been the core of venture capital investing for decades, Austin has the third highest percentage of local tech job posting in fast-growing professions in 2017, Indeed reported.
But, of course, each metro area has its own personality. Austin, with the state Capitol downtown, has a higher percentage of government tech workers than most other cities. And rarely do I hear people saying they want Austin to become Silicon Valley -- although they might want the funding availability and talent pool, at times.
In the end, Indeed found none of the cities are "the next Silicon Valley."
"The San Jose area remains the metro with the highest share of local job postings in tech, and its tech mix ranks first for fast-growing jobs and second for higher-salary jobs," Jed Kolko, chief economist at Indeed Hiring Lab, wrote. "San Francisco is close, with the most similar mix of tech jobs to Silicon Valley’s. Yet, despite their continued dominance, both Bay Area metros are seeing their share of tech jobs fall."
Austin, for example, showed a 0.3 percent decline in its share of national tech job postings compared to last year. Meanwhile, Seattle showed a 10.7 percent increase.
"The share of US tech-job openings in these eight hubs has been consistent for years, rising slightly from 26.5% in 2013 to 27.6% in 2016 and 27.4% in 2017," Kolko wrote. "In other words, there hasn’t been a broad shift of technology jobs away from these hubs toward the rest of the country."
(Top image by Brent Wistrom)
