Texas Drives STEM Job Growth and Future Opportunities

HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Three Texas cities — Austin, Dallas and Houston — rank among the top 20 metropolitan areas in a new index that evaluates STEM job growth across the United States.

RCLCO Real Estate Consulting’s annual STEMdex names Denver, Seattle, Austin, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., San Jose, Raleigh, Boston, Portland and Salt Lake City as the top ten markets this year. The study examined the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas to identify current strongholds of STEM employment and markets poised to attract future STEM-related jobs.

Austin placed No. 3 in the ranking, while Dallas came in at No. 11 and Houston ranked No. 20.

Austin’s high placement reflects major corporate relocations and expansions. Tesla recently selected Austin for its new headquarters and is building a 4 million–square-foot factory in east Austin. Oracle also moved its headquarters to Austin last year, and a 35-story office tower in downtown Austin — expected to be fully leased by Google — is under construction.

Houston has bolstered its technology profile as well. Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced it will relocate its headquarters from California to Houston and will be located in the City Place development (formerly Springwoods Village). The new HPE headquarters is being developed by Patrinely Group.

Texas and California are the only states with three cities each in the STEMdex top 20. RCLCO publishes the STEMdex annually in partnership with office investment manager CapRidge Partners.

“While it remains far too early to fully assess how the COVID-19 pandemic and any current or future variants will continue to impact our daily lives, another year of data has given us increased confidence in the growth prospects for STEM jobs, particularly in the regions highlighted by the 2021 STEMdex,” said Gregg Logan, Managing Director of RCLCO. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent 10-year industry employment projections (published September 2021, through 2030) forecast higher-than-average employment growth in many industries, particularly within STEM fields.

RCLCO and CapRidge Partners created the STEMdex in 2016 to identify which of the country’s largest metropolitan areas are best positioned for STEM-based job growth. The index evaluates metrics across four major categories RCLCO considers crucial to STEM growth:

STEM Trends and Economic Factors — including population growth, industry-specific expansion, location quotient metrics and STEM wages;
Workforce Quality — including millennial household growth and educational attainment;
Quality of Life and Health — including cost of living, commute times, walkability and related factors;
Business Climate — including office costs, local tax environment and other business-related metrics.

In total, RCLCO identified and weighted 24 indicators that characterize those categories and quantify their impact on the STEM job market. The methodology is designed to provide an objective, comparative view of which metro areas are already STEM hubs and which are likely to attract STEM employers going forward.

For more about Texas real estate, check out the book Houston 2020: America’s Boom Town — An Extreme Close Up by Ralph Bivins. Available on Amazon.

Houston 2020 Ebook version available.

File: Texas Leads STEM Growth Patterns

File: RCLCO. STEM jobs. Texas Leads STEM Growth Patterns. CapRidge Partners. Austin. Google, Tesla

Caption: Trammell Crow, in a joint venture with the Michael Dell organization, is developing a 35-story office tower in downtown Austin overlooking Lady Bird Lake. The 719,000-square-foot building was designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli.