Seattle is the best place to find workers skilled in the latest technology trends.
That’s according to a new report called Cities on the Tech Frontier, which assessed regional competitiveness based on the concentration of tech workers with highly valued in-demand skills, such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
The Seattle area ranked No. 1 among regions with at least 25,000 tech workers, edging out Silicon Valley, Boston, and Austin.
Seattle also ranked atop a separate “momentum list,” which measured general tech-related employment growth between 2017 and 2021, as well as growth in jobs requiring highly valued skills.
The report, published by workforce research firm Burning Glass Institute, used data from career histories of more than 65 million U.S. workers and job postings from labor market analytics firm Lightcast.
“Seattle’s strength isn’t just in numbers. Its workers lead the pack in having the most cutting-edge skills, and that lead is growing, with Microsoft, Amazon, and other local companies making huge investments in the AI technologies reshaping the tech sector,” said Stuart Andreason, managing director of workforce innovation at Burning Glass.
The report aimed to measure the quality of workforces. For example, some cities such as Washington D.C. have a large quantity of tech workers but many are in government contracting and defense — sectors often oriented at legacy technologies.
From the report: “This raises an important consideration for public officials and economic developers about which industries to prioritize: not only which sectors are best poised for growth but also which are most likely to enrich the talent soil, building the capability base of workers in ways that benefit the broader ecosystem.”
The report concluded that there is no one-size-fits-all model to building a robust, competitive tech workforce. Some cities anchor around higher education institutions while others grow from the presence of innovative corporations.
The Seattle region has both, primarily with the University of Washington and its computer science program, along with longtime tech giants Microsoft and Amazon. There are also more than 100 engineering centers established by the likes of Google, Meta, Salesforce, and other out-of-town companies aiming to draw from the area’s talent pool.
Seattle’s ranking in the report also provides more evidence of the city’s AI clout — something that may not be well known to those outside of the region, as GeekWire reported last month.
The report also called out remote work, noting that its list of small cities ranked by highly valued skills is dominated by lifestyle locations. Bend, Ore., and Spokane, Wash., ranked 6th and 9th, respectively.
“Many of these are in some proximity to Silicon Valley or other tech hubs, possibly signaling the influence of hybrid work arrangements,” the report said.
Still, the report concluded that places like Seattle and Silicon Valley will likely not lose their footing, given strong links between talent development and economic development.
“The high concentration and momentum these cities enjoy foretell continued success in growing employment and economic opportunity in the tech sector, at least for the time being,” the report said. “For all the talk of these high-cost hubs facing stiffening competition in an era of remote work, their place at the top seems secure.”
Here are the top 10 large cities, as measured by highly skilled tech workers:
And the top 10 based on “tech worker momentum”:
