by King White, on Jul 22, 2020 10:59:26 AM
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted labor markets across the U.S. due to increased unemployment and transition to work-from-home. The tech sector has been at the center of this transition with companies like Twitter, Facebook, Google and others announcing more permanent work-from-home strategies. However, one aspect that remains critical to the success of all companies is the ability to attract and retain tech talent. Although the physical location of where these employees are working may change (i.e. traditional office, collaboration hubs, or home office), the need to source tech talent is even more relevant and finding labor markets with the greatest supply of talent is more important than ever. To help navigate the labor market landscape, Site Selection Group analyzed 190 of the largest metro areas to identify the top 25 tech cities in the U.S.
Tech city ranking methodology
To identify the top tech cities, Site Selection Group weighted, scored and ranked 190 metro areas based on critical location intelligence data that have been proven to identify high performing locations. Our methodology encompasses more than a dozen variables within nine categories. The top 25 metro areas were selected based on the Tech Industry Presence. These top 25 were then ranked within each of the other ranking categories.
Top 25 Tech Cities
Based on the results of the analysis, the following 25 cities were identified as some of the best tech cities to expand your business. These cities possess some of the deepest pools of tech talent; however, they often come with higher labor and operating costs and a lot more competition.
| RANK | Metro Area |
|---|---|
| 1 | San Francisco, CA |
| 2 | San Jose, CA |
| 3 | Seattle, WA |
| 4 | Austin, TX |
| 5 | Dallas-Fort Worth, TX |
| 6 | Denver, CO |
| 7 | Boston, MA |
| 8 | Atlanta, GA |
| 9 | Phoenix, AZ |
| 10 | Salt Lake City, UT |
| 11 | Raleigh-Durham, NC |
| 12 | Kansas City, MO-KS |
| 13 | Northern Virginia |
| 14 | New York, NY |
| 15 | Provo-Orem, UT |
Conclusions
Due to the exponential growth and reliance on technology, the demand for tech talent will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. Companies will need to think strategically about their site selection strategies if they want to attract and retain these highly sought-after workers whether it is in a traditional or home office. As a result, it is critical to monitor the leading tech cities to plan for your future tech talent needs.
