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Dallas-Fort Worth computes No. 3 ranking among America's top metros for tech jobs

Dallas is at the top the list for projected growth in tech jobs

Photo by Joe Daniel Price/Getty Images

For the third year in a row, Austin ranks first on a closely watched list of the best places in the U.S. for tech jobs — and Dallas-Fort Worth isn't far behind, at No. 3.

For the latest version of its Tech Town Index, CompTIA, a trade group for the tech industry, looked at 20 metros with populations over 250,000 where demand for tech workers is highest. The metros were then ranked based on cost of living, number of postings for open tech positions in 2021, and projected job growth over both the next 12 months and next five years.

Austin landed at No. 1 again this year, followed in descending order by San Jose, California; Dallas-Fort Worth; Atlanta, Georgia; and Huntsville, Alabama. No other Texas metro appears in the top 10.

CompTIA says the Austin area offers “an attractive combination of opportunity, affordability, and good old-fashioned real estate that keeps technology companies — and talent — flocking to the Lone Star State’s capital city.”

Last year, 64,481 technology job openings were posted in the Austin area, according to CompTIA. The group says Austin continues to top the list for one-year (3.75 percent) and five-year (13.9 percent) projected growth in tech jobs. Companies like Deloitte, Dell Technologies, General Motors, and IBM are among the top recruiters of tech pros in the metro area.

But Austin wasn't first in every category. The area ranked sixth among U.S. metros for the addition of tech jobs last year (1,846), according to CompTIA. Dallas-Fort Worth grabbed the No. 1 spot, adding 5,321 tech jobs in 2021.

DFW is home to the state’s biggest tech workforce (313,447 workers in 2021, ranked sixth in the country). This year, that figure is expected to rise to 321,138, representing a one-year increase of 2.5 percent.

Houston had 134,436 tech jobs in 2021, CompTIA says. This year’s number is expected to be about the same (134,754). Meanwhile, San Antonio had 49,801 tech jobs last year, with the workforce projected to grow to 50,971 this year.

CompTIA poses the question of whether Austin can keep up its current pace of growth as a tech hub.

“Many believe it can. Experts cite ideal conditions for business creation like access to capital, skilled workers, and affordable office space as key factors appealing to startups and enterprise companies alike. … But the IT pros who live and work in Austin say that it’s the attention to work-life balance, access to educational opportunities, and the city’s distinctive culture that keep them working in Austin — and feeling wonderfully weird,” CompTIA says.

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Under the Sun

Solar power poised to surpass coal for the first time in Texas

Photo by Bill Mead on Unsplash

Utility-scale solar generation has been increasing steadily in Texas.

Solar power promises to shine even brighter in Texas this year. A new forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) indicates that for the first time, annual power generation from utility-scale solar will surpass annual power generation from coal across the territory covered by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

Solar generation is expected to reach 78 billion kilowatt-hours in 2026 in the ERCOT grid, compared with 60 billion kilowatt-hours for coal, the EIA forecast says. The ERCOT grid supplies power to about 90 percent of Texas.

“Utility-scale solar generation has been increasing steadily in ERCOT as solar capacity additions help meet rapid electricity demand growth,” the forecast says.

Although natural gas remains the dominant source of electricity generation in ERCOT, accounting for an average 44 percent of electricity generation from 2021 to 2025, solar’s share of the generation mix rose from 4 percent to 12 percent. During the same period, coal’s share dropped from 19 percent to 13 percent.

EIA predicts about 40 percent of U.S. solar capacity, or 14 billion kilowatt-hours, added in 2026 will come from Texas.

Although EIA expects annual solar generation to exceed annual coal generation in 2026, solar surpassed coal in ERCOT on a monthly basis for the first time in March 2025, when solar generation totaled 4.33 billion kilowatt-hours and coal’s totaled 4.16 billion kilowatt-hours. Solar generation continued to exceed that of coal until August of that year.

“In 2026, we estimate that solar exceeded coal for the first time in March, and we forecast generation from solar installations in ERCOT will continue to exceed that from coal until December, when coal generation exceeds solar,” says EIA. “We expect solar generation to exceed that of coal for every month in 2027 except January and December.”

For 2027, EIA forecasts annual solar generation of 99 billion kilowatt-hours in the ERCOT grid, compared with 66 billion kilowatt-hours of annual coal generation.

In April, ERCOT projected almost 368 billion kilowatt-hours of demand in ERCOT’s territory by 2032. ERCOT’s all-time peak demand hit 85.5 billion kilowatt-hours in August 2023.

“Texas is experiencing exceptional growth and development, which is reshaping how large load demand is identified, verified, and incorporated into long-term planning,” ERCOT President and CEO Pablo Vegas said. “As a result of a changing landscape, we believe this forecast to be higher than expected … load growth.”

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This article first appeared on our sister site, EnergyCapitalHTX.

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