Texas is gaining software tech jobs, not just in Austin, but also Dallas-Fort Worth
The effort by Texas cities to lure more software-related jobs is working, although the state’s growth still lags behind several other tech-friendly parts of the U.S., according to a just-released report.
And, even though Austin gets more publicity as a Silicon Valley-like destination, nearly 40% of Texas’ jobs that are directly related to data processing, software design and publishing is actually in Dallas-Fort Worth.
“Certainly, Austin gets a lot of attention and there’s been a lot of movement to Austin, but the jobs growth in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is about 11%, a percentage point higher than Texas overall (since 2018),” said Chris Hopfensperger, executive director of Software.org: the BSA Foundation, a nonprofit organization created to support the industry and influence public policy toward emerging technologies.
In a report published Tuesday, Software.org reported that Texas now employed 244,830 directly in software-related jobs. The report was created in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit, and includes data from federal labor statistics, census figures and other sources.
Of those Texas jobs, about 109,000 are in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, up from about 98,000 jobs in 2018, Hopfensperger said.
But many other states grew faster than Texas.
Idaho, Nevada and Washington state experienced increases of software jobs of more than 25% from 2018-200, according to the report.
And California still maintains the highest number of software jobs overall, with 618,968 jobs — making it the only state with more software jobs overall than Texas.
Nationwide, 3.3 million people worked directly in software jobs in the United States last year, according to the report.
The Software.org organization includes board members from some of the biggest players in the software sector, including Adobe, Microsoft and IBM.
For several years in Fort Worth, business and government leaders have talked about the need to bring more high-tech, high-paying jobs to the region.
Les Kreis, who as co-founder of the Bios Partners venture capital firm in Fort Worth has developed an expertise in identifying overlooked bio-technology markets, said it’s crucial that Fort Worth become more competitive in luring all types of technology companies.
And, Kreis said, that means creating an environment in which startup companies feel empowered to take chances with their high-tech ideas.
“I think the missing link in Fort Worth is just technology, period,” he said. “Software is just one part of it. I wouldn’t say software is the focus.”
Greg Head is founder of Gregslist.com, a company that provides a platform for 666 software companies in Dallas-Fort Worth to post job openings. Currently, the website is listing 442 job openings.
While much of the growth shown in the Software.org report can be attributed to the large employers in North Texas with established work forces — AT&T, Texas Instruments, Lockheed Martin — the region needs to do more to make smaller, start-up companies a better option for prospective employees, Head said.
While some of those smaller companies may eventually falter or fail, some of them will grow fantastically — and that potential for success is what can lead to a culture change in the region.
“In the Silicon Valley and Austin, the common culture is never to work for the big companies. Always work for the crazy, small companies,” Head said. “We need Dallas and Fort Worth to be more crazy with our entrepreneural, technological companies.”
