A new report from Forbes ranks the Raleigh-Cary metropolitan area as fifth on its “America’s New Tech Hot Spots” list based on the creation of high-tech related jobs.
Utilizing data from research firm Praxis, Forbes reports that Raleigh-Cary produced 17.9 percent growth in STEM-related jobs between 2001 and 2012.
STEM refers to science, technology, engineering and math. And given our region’s universities as well as its hub of high-tech and life science firms, the news isn’t really a surprise. Another Forbes tech jobs list in 2011 listed the Raleigh metro area as No. 4. And last May Forbes placed the capital city seventh on its best cities for jobs list.
But how much better might the newest report data be if Durham and Chapel Hill were included in the metropolitan statistical data? The Forbes study focused on the nation’s largest 51 MSAs. Unfortunately, Durham and Chapel Hill – two big legs of the Research Triangle region – are grouped separately.
The ranking is nice, of course. Such data certainly helps industrial recruiters – and also encourages tech workers elsewhere to consider moving to our homeland.
Especially encouraging in the report is that Raleigh-Cary produced 6.2 percent growth in STEM jobs over the last two years despite the recession and our state’s lingering high unemployment rate.
That number was good to rank Raleigh-Cary 12th. But in this economy, any STEM job growth is welcome.
And compared to other high-tech havens, Raleigh-Cary is doing pretty well. For example, Forbes notes that Silicon Valley firms employ 12.6 percent FEWER high-tech workers than they did a decade ago. Chicago, New York and Los Angeles also have shed STEM jobs.
Tops on the Hot Spots list is Washington, D.C. followed by Riverside-San Bernadino-Ontario, Calif., Austin, Baltimore, Raleigh-Cary, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Houston, Seattle and Jacksonville, Fla.
