Clocking In

Dallas deemed No. 3 fastest growing tech hub amid the pandemic

Dallas' tech sector is gaining ground.

Pixelchrome Inc/Getty Images

When Americans think of tech hubs, Silicon Valley or even Austin may initially come to mind. However, Dallas appears to be making a play for tech-hub status.

Citing data from career platform LinkedIn, the Axios news website reports that Dallas-Fort Worth has seen a healthy influx of tech workers since the start of the pandemic. In fact, DFW ranks third among 14 major U.S. labor markets for the number of relocating software and IT workers between March 2020 and February 2021 compared with the same period a year earlier.

Miami grabs the No. 1 spot for the gain in software and IT workers (up 15.4 percent) between the two periods, with Houston in second place (10.4 percent) and Dallas-Fort Worth in third place (8.6 percent), according to the LinkedIn data.

"Young engineers and recent college graduates see Miami, Houston, and Philadelphia — not San Francisco, New York, or Seattle — as the hot new places to jumpstart a technology or creative economy career," Axios notes.

At the bottom of the barrel sits the San Francisco Bay Area, which suffered a loss of 34.8 percent when comparing the arrival and departure of software and IT workers. Interestingly, Austin experienced a loss of 8 percent in this category.

The shift from traditional tech hub to emerging tech hub is likely to continue as employers and employees alike further embrace remote work. A survey commissioned in April by the nonprofit One America Works found 47 percent of tech workers had moved during the pandemic. In addition, 3 in 10 tech workers anticipate living somewhere different than they did during the pandemic.

Tech trade group CompTIA says the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area is currently home to 373,695 tech workers. Between 2019 and 2020, the metro added 4,466 tech jobs, the group says, and it is poised to almost double that — 9,487 new jobs — in 2021, according to CompTIA's projection.

---

A version of this story originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.com.

reports technology

Building boom

Dallas comes in at No. 1 in the U.S. for retail construction in 2025

Photo by Josh Olalde on Unsplash

Nearly 7.15 million square feet of space are under construction in DFW.

Get ready for a gigantic cartload of new shopping opportunities in Dallas-Fort Worth. A new report, published by commercial real estate services provider Lee & Associates, says DFW leads more than 60 U.S. retail markets with nearly 7.15 million square feet of space under construction.

To put that in perspective: If the average Walmart supercenter measures 182,000 square feet, the nearly 7.15 million-square-foot total would work out to 39 new supercenters being built in the region.

The amount of retail space going up in DFW represents 15 percent of all retail space under construction in the more than 60 U.S. markets tracked by Lee & Associates.

According to the report, the Dallas-Fort Worth industrial market remains on a path of growth, with vacancy rates continuing to trend below 10 percent, reflecting sustained demand for space.

This quarter, nearly 7 million square feet of new industrial space was delivered, more than doubling the volume from the first quarter — highlighting a steady upward trend.

“After some crushingly slow post-pandemic years, retail construction throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth region this year is on pace to hit its highest point since 2017,” Bisnow reported.

What’s behind the surge in retail construction? Population growth. Data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau shows DFW was the country’s third-fastest-growing metro from 2023 to 2024, based on the number of new residents.

DFW is by far the most active U.S. market for new retail space. (Just look at how many grocery stores are being built in the area.)

Houston and Austin aren’t too far behind Dallas-Fort Worth, though.

The second-ranked Houston area has nearly 3.9 million square feet of retail space under construction, according to the report, and the third-ranked Austin area has more than 3.4 million square feet of retail space being built.

Houston was the second-fastest-growing metro from 2023 to 2024, according to the Census Bureau, and Austin landed at No. 13.