Cincinnati ranks among the top cities in the U.S. when it comes to tech resiliency, according to a new report.
Cincinnati ranks No. 9 among cities that preserved or enhanced their status as tech hubs during the pandemic, according to "Programmed to Win: 10 Cities Where Tech Strength Defies the Pandemic," an analysis by LinkedIn’s Economic Graph team.
The study highlights the top 10 metros areas where engineering talent showed the fastest growth in proportion to population size from December 2019 through May 2021.
Topping the list is Madison, Wis., followed by Colorado Springs, Colo., and Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C.
The past 18 months have been a challenging time for developing technical talent. On-site training became difficult or impossible, because of pandemic-related restrictions. Meanwhile, tech hubs such as the San Francisco Bay Area or the New York City metro area saw migration trends turn negative.
A big driver in that trend: engineers leaving the region in search of cheaper living costs elsewhere.
This analysis focuses on the pool of tech and engineering talent in each metro area, defined mainly by the job functions on members’ LinkedIn profiles. These range from information technology and software development to mechanical, civil, electrical, chemical and bio engineering.
The top 10 highlights urban areas where tech hubs lately have been most resilient relative to total population size. Results range from 4.6% growth in the tech talent pool for Madison to about break-even for No. 10 Denver.
Many of these metros are bolstered by universities with strong engineering programs.
Rankings reflect metro areas with a minimum of 20,000 LinkedIn members with identifiable engineering or IT talents. Each location's talent level is defined chiefly as the sum of people whose job functions are categorized as engineering or information technology.
To read the complete report, click here.
