What’s the Greatest Metropolis for Techies in 2024?

Have you ever ever questioned what the most effective metropolis for technologists is post-pandemic? I moved to Austin, Texas in late 2020 from San Francisco, CA, however our transfer wasn’t a response to Covid. We had deliberate to maneuver to Texas for a very long time to reside nearer to our prolonged household. We now reside across the nook from my in-laws and have plenty of household in straightforward driving distance. For us, dwelling in Austin has introduced a extra fulfilling life-style whereas we elevate our 3 younger youngsters.

However I incessantly get requested whether or not Austin is an efficient place to reside if you happen to don’t have household right here. It was once that the most effective metropolis for technologists was the Bay Space. Again in 2013 once I moved there, each different metropolis was a distant second, third, or fourth possibility. However Covid reordered the world. Mixed with pleasant inquiries, I needed to re-examine what the most effective metropolis for techies is within the courageous new world of extra distant and hybrid work.

TLDR: Should you care solely about maximizing your expertise profession’s development, the Bay Space remains to be the undisputed finest metropolis. However from a financial and life-style perspective, I feel Austin is the #2 finest metropolis in America. The #1 finest metropolis for technologists in 2024 is Seattle, Washington. 

The place Are the Tech Jobs in 2024?

The distant / co-location pendulum is swinging again in favor of in-person roles in late 2023. Regardless of this, I feel the covid-19 pandemic has opened the distant working pandora’s field. Regardless that corporations are more and more pushing for workers to return to workplaces, Gartner estimates that 48% will both be totally distant or hybrid on the finish of 2023 [source]: 

Tech staff specifically appear unlikely to ever return to in-person work in the identical numbers as 2019 [source]. However even with the rise in totally distant work, hybrid and in-person workers nonetheless soundly outnumber full distant workers. That implies that location will proceed to play a key function in in folks’s careers.

I’m not a fan of most “finest metropolis to reside in” articles. They are usually gentle on information and heavy on PR spin. I’m taking a look at you randstad, VentureBeat, and Indeed. For one, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has a reasonably inaccurate definition of what a “tech” employee is. That makes it straightforward to pad articles with seemingly-authoritative, however in the end ineffective information. 

I say the proof is within the pudding. Let’s go to LinkedIn and seek for three frequent job titles within the tech business. I selected to search for roles in software program engineer, product administration, and UX design. Right here’s what that information seems to be like for the same old metro-area suspects: San Francisco Bay Space, Seattle Tacoma, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, and Austin. Word that though I consult with the cities, for this text, I’m referring to town plus the metropolitan space. 

Variety of Job Listings on LinkedIn For 3 Frequent Tech Roles

Graphing this we get the next:

The Former Greatest Metropolis Isn’t What It Used to Be

The above information shocked me in 3 methods:

1. There’s solely a 17% benefit in job postings between LA and SF. When utilizing job postings as a measure of profession alternative, the highest 5 cities are all very related.
2. The 2 tertiary markets I included (Austin and Miami) aren’t as far behind as I anticipated. For my self-discipline (product administration), the California Bay Space has 3x extra job alternatives. Throughout different disciplines, nevertheless, the variations are much less stark.
3. A number of cities have extra job postings than the Bay Space: Seattle, Boston, and LA. That’s not one thing I anticipated to seek out. I had anticipated the Bay Space to have probably the most postings throughout all job specialties.

Uncooked Compensation Information

I gathered the next information from levels.fyi. I solely recorded information for staff with “senior” expertise throughout these metros:

Median Compensation for Senior Technologists In accordance with Ranges.fyi

Utilizing the Bay Space, CA as the usual for compensation is smart as a result of it leads throughout all disciplines for compensation. Right here’s how a lot folks really report being paid in these metros in comparison with the Bay Space salaries for a similar function and the identical seniority:

How A lot Much less Do Techies Get Paid Outdoors the Bay? 

Can the Greatest Metropolis Boring the Bitter Style of COLA?

After all, a greenback isn’t created equal in each state of the union. California salaries are greater, however so are taxes [source]: 

Right here’s what a software program engineer making the median wage in every location ought to anticipate to pay in taxes per 12 months. Word that I’ve computed this utilizing a single submitting standing, not married submitting collectively.

Efficient State Taxes for a Software program Engineer in 6 US States

Since CA is the costliest for each compensation and tax charges, we will regulate the COLA desk accordingly:

Tax-Adjusted Compensation for Techies Outdoors the Bay Space

The tax lens helps Seattle, Austin, and Miami be a bit extra aggressive. In Seattle’s case, it’s near being on par with the Bay Space! For Austin and Miami, the bump helps, however they nonetheless lag far behind CA friends.

Value of Dwelling Comparisons

So we all know that techies in New York report being paid ~40% much less in after-tax {dollars} than their California friends. However maybe it’s 40% cheaper to reside there. If that had been the case, you can reside in both metropolis and nonetheless take house the identical variety of {dollars}. 

Right here’s a comparability of after-tax compensation to the precise price of dwelling. For the reason that Bay Space is the costliest metropolis, I’ve used it as the purpose of comparability [source]:

Value-of-Dwelling-Adjusted Tech Compensation By Metropolis

Right here, Seattle pulls right into a decisive lead as a consequence of tax benefits and decrease price of dwelling. Austin is pulls into second place and appears surprisingly good. All the opposite cities cluster between -28% and -36% when it comes to comp.

Up to now, Seattle is within the lead, however we nonetheless want to contemplate job high quality and different intangibles.

Are There Good Jobs within the Greatest Metropolis?

Up so far, I’ve assumed {that a} job is a job. On this mannequin, techies don’t care in any respect what sort of job they’ve. However after all, folks do care in regards to the high quality of their job.

There are a whole lot of methods to measure the standard of jobs in a selected metro. In my (admittedly biased) opinion, density might be the most effective measure. Not as a result of I worth amount over high quality, however as a result of I feel amount and high quality are correlated. The extra main, progressive corporations cluster in a selected spot, the extra job specialization happens. Specialization presents staff extra choices and extra selection ought to result in higher jobs.

So, throughout the 7 cities on this evaluation, the place are main tech corporations situated? 

The place the Wild Issues Huge Tech Corporations Are

Beginning with the most important 100 tech corporations by market cap, 61 are based mostly within the US. [source] Of these 61 situated within the US, 44 are situated within the cities we’re contemplating. Right here’s the distribution of main tech corporations throughout our cities: 

Surprisingly, Austin really wins out compared with non-SF cities. Whereas that will look spectacular, it’s not as massive of a bonus because it appears. Listed below are the market caps of the businesses based mostly in Seattle vs these based mostly in Austin:

The market cap of Seattle’s massive tech corporations is a whopping 3.79 trillion. In the meantime, the market cap of Austin’s 4 giant tech corporations is just one Trillion. This means that there’s almost 4x extra capital focus within the Seattle metro than in Austin. That ought to imply extra groups, jobs, specialization, and distinctive alternatives.

Enterprise Funding

One other roundabout strategy to get on the high quality of tech jobs may to have a look at Enterprise Capital funding by metropolis. Identical to taking a look at large-cap corporations, that is pretty oblique. There are many horrible VC-backed companies, simply as there are many nice non-VC-backed companies. However this measure ought to not less than inform us the place tech founders try to scale high-growth ventures [source]:

Right here, Miami doesn’t make the minimize and Seattle comes out behind Austin, which is a bit stunning. NYC and Boston each make a surprisingly robust displaying too. 

Narrowing Down the Greatest Metropolis: Seattle vs Austin

We’ve seen above that Seattle and Austin may every declare the throne of being the most effective metropolis for techies in 2024:

1. You’ll preserve extra of your cash than within the Bay Space. 
2. Each cities have a bunch of job listings, even in comparison with the Bay Space in California.
3. There are extra massive tech corporations headquartered in Seattle and Austin than competing locations. 

The VC funding image complicates issues a bit. NYC and Boston obtain considerably extra funding than both Seattle or Austin. So if you wish to work for a VC-backed firm, NYC and Boston look aggressive. However I might argue if that’s your solely desire, you must reside within the Bay Space. The Bay receives extra VC funding that NYC and Boston put collectively.

However that is Overthinking Cash, not Overthinking Enterprise Funding. NYC and Boston are disqualified on the idea of their decrease take-home compensation numbers.

So, between Seattle and Austin, the query comes all the way down to extra of the intangible quality-of-life stuff. I don’t suppose it’s truthful to immediately evaluate the 2 cities on some axes as a result of they’re so totally different. For one factor, the Austin metro is kind of a bit smaller than Seattle (2.4M vs 4.0M). So if you wish to evaluate issues like arts and tradition, you’ll anticipate Seattle to win handily for no different cause than there are 1.6M extra folks creating cool stuff. 

However, we will nonetheless evaluate another salient options that techies most likely care about.

The Greatest Metropolis for Climate

Seattle winters are lengthy and darkish. Each time I’ve visited within the winter, I instantly get hit with Seasonal Affective signs. I feel this contributes to the considerably greater charges of despair within the Pacific Northwest. For comparability, 23.9% of individuals in Washington have been instructed they’re experiencing despair vs Texas’ 18.6% [source]: 

However Austin’s summers are extremely scorching. I don’t imply a bit heat, I imply dangerous-for-human-life ranges of warmth. I feel for many individuals, a little bit of unhappiness within the winter is best than having to reside indoors for 8 weeks in late summer time to keep away from warmth stroke [source]: 

Whereas researching this text, I used to be shocked to be taught that 57% of Individuals want dwelling in a warmer local weather. Solely 29% stated they like to reside in a chilly local weather. [source] On that foundation, I’m inclined to declare Austin the winner of the climate class. However the summers are simply too brutal. I feel for most individuals, Seattle’s climate (winter despair however) is definitely preferable.

Winner: Seattle, WA

The Greatest Metropolis for Politics

Texas has a fame for being an overwhelmingly politically conservative state. It’s actually way more politically conservative than Washington state. However the cities of Austin and Seattle are fairly shut of their breakdown of republican and democratic voters [source]:

See Also

safety – Out-of-bounds learn & write within the glibc’s qsort()

Regardless of this, there’s no denying that Texas is extra politically conservative. On condition that technologists skew closely in direction of the democratic get together [source], this one appears fairly clear. Should you care deeply about state politics and you’re a techie, you must reside in Seattle.

Winner: Seattle, WA

The Greatest Metropolis for Local weather Change Dangers

Most techies are democrats and most democrats are apprehensive about local weather change. [source] So it appears related to incorporate a bit on local weather change dangers. Austin and Seattle aren’t listed within the 10 finest or worst local weather change cities [source], which is sweet. However Seattle seems to win this one too [source]:

Winner: Seattle, WA

The Greatest Metropolis for Outside Recreation

I used to joke that what folks like probably the most in regards to the Bay Space is getting out of the Bay Space.

That by no means felt like a ringing endorsement, however there’s some benefit to being close to different environments. From San Francisco, the mountains are 5 hours east, Redwood forests are 2 hours south, and surfable seashores are 1 hour north.

On this class, Seattle has an enormous benefit. Should you reside within the Seattle metro, you’ll have entry to snowboarding, sledding, swimming, boating, mountains, and unbelievable forests all inside a 3-5 hour drive.

In Austin, there are 3 boatable reservoirs and some small rivers inside a 2 hour drive. These our bodies of water provide swimming, boating, and different water sports activities. The Gulf Coast is ~6 hours away by automobile which makes it inconvenient to entry. Additionally, as somebody raised on Atlantic Ocean seashores, I discover the Gulf to be kinda gross.

The closest mountains and winter sports activities are a 1.5 hr aircraft flight or 15 hour automobile drive to southern Colorado. My favourite out of doors interest (backpacking) is just about unattainable right here in Austin. There’s nearly no elevation change for a whole lot of miles in any course! I really fly to Seattle for many of my mountaineering.

Winner: Seattle, WA

Conclusion: Seattle FTW

Among the many 7 cities that we began with, all however 2 (Austin and Seattle) require tech staff to take substantial cuts in buying energy. These cities had been eradicated proper out of the gate.

That leaves solely Seattle (+10% comp in comparison with the Bay) and Austin (+6% comp) standing. Right here’s the abstract of all the opposite classes we reviewed for these two cities:

The Greatest Metropolis For Technologists in 2024: Seattle, Washington

I’ve actually loved dwelling in Austin for the previous 3 years, however that’s as a result of I’m dwelling close to household, not town itself. I’m excited that my youngsters will get to have relationships with their grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. I really like that we will do the vacations right here with little to no journey. 

But when I may magically relocate all my household to Seattle, I’d be up there in a heartbeat. 

Comfortable overthinking!