Over 40% of West Coast Tech Job Listings Are Outside West Coast

(Bloomberg) – When West Coast tech firms are hiring, they’re increasingly posting jobs in Texas, Virginia and Georgia.

More than four in ten listings for higher educated white-collar occupations at technology companies based in California, Oregon and Washington are outside of the region, according to an analysis by the Conference Board.

Texas is by far the top state destination, including in Austin, where Tesla Inc. just moved its headquarters. Among metro areas, Washington, D.C., comes on top, followed by New York City.

While East Coast cities like Boston have long been tech hubs, the findings point to a pandemic-era shift inland. Denver and Nashville, Tennessee, have seen some of the biggest increases in job postings.

The trend, which began before the Covid-19 crisis, has greatly accelerated since as companies went fully or partially remote -- and many workers fled California. Tech firms are also expanding – Amazon.com Inc. in Arlington, Virginia, and Google in Manhattan, for instance -- and seeking local talent.

The percentage of job postings outside of the West Coast, 43%, has jumped from about 30% at the beginning of 2019, according to research from the Conference Board.

Faced with a tight labor market, companies across the country have bid up wages and offered increased flexibility to attract and retain workers. In places where the cost of living is cheaper, West Coast tech firms are able to pay more than the local market -- but still less than in California, according to Agron Nicaj, the Conference Board economist who conducted the analysis.

By state, Texas is the biggest winner, with 7.3% of job postings from West Coast tech companies in 2020 to 2021 -- up from 4.6% before the pandemic.

Austin captures almost 4% of the listings analyzed by the Conference Board. And while transplants have made the city one of the fastest growing metro areas in the country, the influx of high-paid tech workers have also sent home prices soaring.

Another winner is Virginia, which caught up with New York during the pandemic.

Georgia and North Carolina are also attracting tech companies, with Atlanta and Durham getting a larger share of the pie of the listings.