With the cost of living so high in some of the biggest technology centers, like San Francisco and Silicon Valley, some tech professionals are looking for work in different places. Lucky for them, some surprising new tech hubs have been cropping up across the country. This shift could help skilled tech professionals find jobs in new locations with lower cost (and perhaps a better standard) of living.
For instance, according to this recent Forbes article, the city with the highest tech job growth is Austin, Texas. "Tech companies have expanded employment by 41% since 2001, and the number of STEM workers has risen by 17% over the same period," Forbes reports. While Austin isn’t new to the tech field, this growth is definitely impressive. One city with tech job growth that surprised me was Salt Lake City! The article places Salt Lake City as the city with the sixth highest job growthin the technology arena, touting a 38% growth in tech industry employment growth from 2001-2013. Even Kansas City has seen a gain in high-tech companies; it was the first city to get Google Fiber.
More well-established tech hubs, like Seattle and the Bay Area, are still going strong. But with new tech hubs cropping up, more dispersed centers exist for technology and science work. This gives professional programmers, technical editors, graphic designers, and other tech specialists more choices about where they can live and work comfortably — not everyone has to live in the Silicon Valley.
For more information on other fast growing tech cities, check out the Forbes article or the State Tech Magazine article linked above.
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