When you think about technology, the first thing that comes to mind is Silicon Valley. What most people fail to realize, however, is that Texas is rapidly growing as a tech hub in recent years. In fact, Austin has been dubbed Silicon Hills, a wordplay on Silicon Valley and the hilly area west of the city where a collection of tech companies are bundled together.
As per data, there are more than 5,500 tech companies in Silicon Hills alone. Over in Houston, the number of vacancies surged by 140%, and if you can believe it, the market is even conservative as the city job postings shrunk by 2,000 between 2017 and 2018. And if you are looking for tech jobs in Texas, Houston should be on top of your list. The median wage in the city is 93% higher compared to the average salary in the United States.
Overall, Texas only trails California when it comes to the number of tech jobs. And in the state, the median wage is 98% higher than the national median salary.
In terms of the breakdown about the tech jobs in Texas, you have:
- Software and web developers, which account for 112,667 jobs
- Systems and cybersecurity analysts, which account for 68,830
- Network architects, admin, and support, which account for 64,783
- Computer support specialists, which account for 61,135
- Database administrators, which account for 14,660
The industry is contributing $142 billion to the state economy. So, it makes sense that Texas is putting a lot of investments into developing the sector. According to the Cyberstates 2019 report by CompTIA, there are more than 300,000 job postings in Texas and almost 30,000 more that are emerging. Clearly, there are a lot of opportunities for those in the tech industry to relocate to the state. In fact, according to Business Insider, workers of Silicon Valley are moving to Silicon Hills, as the latter offers several advantages.
For example, one negative effect of migration is the high demand for properties.
While workers in Silicon Valley are among the country’s highest earners, pulling in as much as $140,000 in 2018, the rent remains at skyrocketing prices due to the low inventory and high demand. For instance, the average rent there is around $2,400. In comparison, when you move to Austin, you are looking at something between $1,200 and $1,700.
Austin is also attractive for another reason – diversity. Those who are used to the culture of acceptance in San Francisco would feel right at home in Silicon Hills.
Among the big names that made Silicon Hills their home includes:
- BigCommerce
- AMD
- Cisco
- ProCore Technologies
- TasteMade
- Enverus
- Adobe Inc.
- AT&T
- eBay
- IBM
- HostGator
- Hewlett-Packard
- Magento
- Oracle
- PayPal
The tech companies that call Houston their home are:
- Orion Group Holdings
- KBR
- HostGator
- Omega Project Solutions
- Gimmal LLC
- Centre Technologies
- Microsoft
- Pariveda Solutions
- GetUsROI
- NMG
- TekRevol
Of course, you can also find the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, which has 3,000 employees. More than 50 companies provide third-party services to the center, and they all pay handsomely to their workers.
So you see, Texas earned its reputation as the second most attractive destination for tech workers, next only to California. And if you are looking for one, forget Silicon Valley for a second, and look toward the Lone Star State.