"The tech industry is no longer bound to the coast," says ZipRecruiter’s Chief Economic Adviser Cathy Barrera to Money Magazine, which is owned by TIME. "As a result, we’re seeing the tech industry expand out of the major metropolis areas, and into smaller regional cities that have since flown largely under the radar."
According to TIME, ZipRecruiter put out a new list on Monday of the "hottest cities for tech jobs now" and ranked Tampa as the #17 city in the country.
The list makers say the ranking is based on the "fastest-growing" tech markets based on "year-over-year" data, which means many mid-sized cities are featured; Tampa experienced nearly 81% increase in tech jobs since last year.
"While we think we’re a bit hotter than #17 it’s always an honor to have Tampa included in the list," says Tampa city spokesperson Ashley Bauman to ABC Action News.
TIME listed the following tech jobs in the Tampa Area as:
- Project Manager
- Systems Administrator
- Project Coordinator
- Data Analyst
- Network Engineer
TIME mentions that the other Bay Area, the San Francisco Bay area in California, "may be losing steam" when it comes to job growth in fields like engineering, software and IT roles.
How do you get involved in this fast-growing field?
One option is through CareerSource Florida, a workforce development program with offices across the Tampa Bay Area.
CareerSource Florida and CareerSource Tampa Bay announced today they recently secured money -- $3.8 million -- from a 2016 grant by the Department of Labor to continue to provide tech skills to help people get into the local tech workforce.
The job-training program is called TechHire, which aims to help add 100,000 people to tech jobs by 2020.
"This program will build the talent pipeline by providing no-cost accelerated training, certification and employment opportunities in these fields to more than 1,000 unemployed and underemployed young adults ages 17-29," says CareerSource Florida.
For more information and to apply, please click HERE.
Part of what makes Florida an attractive place to get into the tech field is that you can get a good salary while still enjoying a relatively low cost of living.
According to ZipRecruiter, Tampa tech employees can expect to be paid about $52,700 early in their career, and about $90,600 by mid-career.
Seattle tech employees, by comparison, can expect to be paid about $72,200 early in their career, and about $117,000 by mid-career.
But in Tampa, the median home price is about $202,750 and in Seattle the median home price is $620,000.
Seattle ranks #19 on the list.
Other cities in Florida that made the list are Orlando and Jacksonville.
