CompTIA Newsroom

State ranks second in tech employment; leads nation in several categories

Austin, Texas – Texas’s technology industry added more than 11,000 new jobs in 2016, according to Cyberstates 2017™, the definitive annual analysis of the nation’s tech industry released today by CompTIA, the world’s leading technology association.

With an estimated 593,000 workers, Texas ranks second among the 50 states for tech industry employment.

Technology occupations across all other industries in Texas – the second component of the tech workforce – reached an estimated 626,300 in 2016.

The tech sector accounts for an estimated 7.2 ($117.2 billion) percent of the overall Texas economy.

The annualized average wage for a Texas tech industry worker was an estimated $102,300 in 2016, 89 percent higher than the average state wage ($54,100). Texas ranks 13^th nationally in average tech industry wages.

Other Key Findings

• In 2016 Texas led the nation by a wide margin in the number of new tech business establishments created (911). The state is now home to an estimated 36,245 tech business establishments.
• Texas also leads the country in the telecommunications services; computer, peripheral and software wholesalers; and computer and electronic repairs sectors of the industry.
• The tech industry employs an estimated 5.1 percent of the overall Texas workforce.
• Leading tech occupations include computer system analysts (65,310), computer user support specialists (62,760) and application software developers (56,430).
• The strongest year-over-year job growth occurred in the categories of computer systems design and IT services (+ 7.2 percent) and R&D and testing labs (+ 4 percent).
• State employers posted more than 42,600 job openings for tech occupations in Q4 2016.

“Since 2010 employment in the tech industry across Texas employment has expanded by 17 percent, adding some 86,000 well-paying jobs,” said Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO, CompTIA. “The Cyberstates data affirms the strength and vitality of the tech industry in Texas; and attests to its essential contribution to the nation’s economy and its role as a source of the innovation that’s generating growth for companies, regardless of their size, locale or markets served.”

Around the Lone Star State
Growth in telecommunications services and computer systems design and IT services helped the Dallas metropolitan area add nearly 3,000 jobs in 2016, boosting total tech industry employment in the metroplex to nearly 210,000 workers. The area is home to an estimated 10,861 tech business establishments.

The Houston metro area recorded a modest decline of 1.6 percent in tech industry employment.  There are nearly 136,000 workers and about 8,100 tech business establishments in the market.

Austin boasts nearly 5,000 tech business establishments and more than 113,000 employees, led by application software developers and computer system analysts.

Industry employment in San Antonio grew by an estimated 2.5 percent, to better than 35,000 workers. The telecommunications services category grew by an impressive 18.1 percent in 2016.

Cyberstates 2017 is based on CompTIA’s analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, EMSI, and other sources. Estimates for 2016 are subject to change as government data is revised and updated. The complete report with full national, state and metropolitan level data is available at http://www.cyberstates.org/.

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Contact:
Preston Grisham
CompTIA
pgrisham@comptia.org
(202) 862-4458

Steven Ostrowski
CompTIA
sostrowski@comptia.org
(630) 678-8468