WSJ: The U.S. Cities With the Most Cutting-Edge Tech Workers
Excerpt from The Wall Street Journal article by Kevin McAllister
The Seattle area has the highest proportion of advanced tech workers in the country relative to cities with similarly sized tech workforces, a new ranking from the Burning Glass Institute shows. Home to Amazon.com and Microsoft MSFT-1.40% .., , Seattle bested other West Coast hubs in attracting talent with cutting-edge skills, while cities weighed down by legacy tech jobs fell further behind.
What makes a cutting-edge city? Burning Glass ranked established and aspiring tech hubs across the U.S. by the share of their tech workforce that boasts a set of cutting-edge skills: those that are most in-demand and most well-paid.
The resulting ranking shows which cities across the country are fertile ground for companies looking to hire for roles requiring advanced skills or expand into new markets. At the opposite end of the spectrum are cities where finding highly skilled workers is becoming more difficult.
"This ranking has a lot of really important lessons here for cities and some warning signs," says Matt Sigelman, president of the Burning Glass Institute. "You can be a city with a relatively large tech workforce, but if that tech workforce doesn't have the same concentration of the most valuable talent, of the most valuable skills, then you can lose your edge very quickly."
Explore our data and our research report: “Cities on the Tech Frontier”