The rise of remote work and a need for new talent may be pushing tech companies away from their traditional hubs, but 'superstar' cities continue to lead the way.
Mark Muro and Yang You summarize an analysis from Brookings that evaluates the potential for a dispersal of tech jobs from a narrow group of employment hubs. "Overall, tech fundamentally remains a 'winner-take-most' employment sector even amid widespread disruption, including the national remote-work explosion," but there are encouraging signs that tech employment is starting to disperse.
"A group of nine increasingly sizable 'rising stars' grew as fast as the superstars in 2020. Mostly in the interior or Sun Belt, rising stars Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Miami, Orlando, Fla., San Diego, Kansas City, Mo., St. Louis, and Salt Lake City all gained ground through the first year of the pandemic." The article notes that several regional hubs also saw growth in the tech sector, and small towns with high quality of life factors experienced growth as remote workers flocked to better climates, small-town amenities, and affordable housing costs.
"Far from definitive, the new information provides real world, at least temporary evidence for what AOL co-founder and investor Steve Case calls 'the rise of the rest'—the spread of tech activity into the heartland." It remains to be seen whether this shift will become a long-term trend. "If the next few years find these firms targeting new talent in new places by boosting their presence in metro areas far from the usual superstars, that could by itself alter the current narrow geography of tech."
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