Austin was 'the biggest winner' of COVID tech migration. What happens to Silicon Valley?

Roland Li
July 15, 2021
Updated: July 18, 2021 12:59 p.m.



AUSTIN, Texas — Texas’ capital has long been a tech pioneer, starting in the 1960s with IBM and Texas Instruments. In 1984, a University of Texas at Austin student named Michael Dell launched his PC company, which would become one of the largest computer manufacturers. But the rise of social media and mobile phones was concentrated in Silicon Valley, cementing the West Coast as the world’s biggest tech hub.

Now, Austin is striving to win the next era of tech.

A year after the pandemic canceled its signature tech and arts conference, SXSW, the city has gone from a harbinger of the crisis to one of its biggest winners, according to local businesses and economic data.

Austin has regained 97% of its lost jobs from spring 2020, according to the Austin Chamber of Commerce. Unemployment was a seasonally adjusted 4.6% in May, down from a pandemic peak of around 12% in April 2020. Company relocations added 12,421 new jobs last year, a record high. The housing market is one of the hottest in the country, with demand soaring from out-of-state arrivals. Studies show there wasn’t a California exodus to Texas, but Austin has benefited from company expansions and tech migration.

As Austin gained, the Bay Area lost. LinkedIn user data shows Austin had the highest net inflow of tech workers of any major U.S. city from May 2020 to April 2021, gaining 217 people for every 10,000 users. The Bay Area saw the biggest drop, losing 80 tech workers for every 10,000 users.

“I didn’t think it could have grown any faster. And then somehow it did,” said Joshua Baer, CEO of Austin tech incubator Capital Factory. “COVID-19 broke a dam that was holding back thousands of even more people who were thinking about moving but held back by their job or other obligations.”

“There were some big winners and some big losers in the COVID migration, and Austin was the biggest winner,” he said.-- excerpt, rest at link above --

Note: in some cases "winner" can also mean "loser".

Quote: Sanguine wrote in post #2

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Note: in some cases "winner" can also mean "loser".

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