More Floridians than ever are working for mobile apps.
The Sunshine State is home to 129,000 jobs in the app economy, according to a new study from the Progressive Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C. The state ranked fifth nationally for jobs in that sector, following California, Texas, Washington and New York.
The app economy gained major traction during the Covid-19 pandemic, when huge portions of the economy were forced to shift from in-person to virtual interactions. Consumers, meanwhile, became more dependent on mobile apps for work, shopping and communication to avoid the virus.
“At both small and large companies, finding workers with app economy skills — the ability to develop, maintain, and support mobile applications — became essential," the report said.
There were 2.5 million jobs in the U.S. app economy in early 2022, according to the report, up 8% from February 2020 and 14% from April 2019. Those numbers include direct, indirect and "spillover" employment that resulted from that growth.
The study analyzed public job postings on the website Indeed.com to estimate the number of core app economy listings – such as app developers, software engineers and help desk workers – in each state. After that, it looked at the indirect non-IT jobs available at the same companies and estimated the potential spillover positions (including local services like banks or restaurants supported by a company's overall job growth) created in that location.
The Progressive Policy Institute reports it had to update its methodology to account for the "likely permanent rise" of remote work. Many tech job postings are no longer tethered to specific cities or even countries, while others are advertised as being based in a number of different potential locations.
"Remote work means that the core jobs (such as app developers, mobile app security specialists, mobile app tech support staff) need not be in the same location as the indirect jobs (such as accounting, legal, marketing, and management)," the report said.
The U.S. tech sector has remained in hiring mode this year, according to the latest data from IT trade association CompTIA. Nationally, job postings for tech jobs surpassed 443,000 in April and 1.6 million year to date – a 40% increase year over year.
Florida is no exception — it is second-highest in the nation for open tech jobs, with more than 79,000 openings. Tampa Bay made up a large portion of those openings, with a 55% increase from 2020 to 2021. It jumped more than 7,000 new jobs over the year, hitting more than 20,000 total new tech jobs.
