WASHINGTON — Silicon Valley’s share of software jobs has fallen sharply in the past five years, while the share of software jobs in other leading tech cities, including Washington, has risen rapidly, according to a study by Glassdoor.
Glassdoor looked at active, unique job postings with “software” in the job title on June 1, 2017, and compared it to the same data on June 1, 2012. That covers professions including software engineers, developers and managers.
The biggest gain in software jobs over the five-year period has been Seattle, which accounts for 16.9 percent of software job postings, a 6.7 percent increase since 2012.
But D.C. ranks second for the increase in software hiring, now accounting for 6.8 percent of such job postings, according to Glassdoor. That’s a 1.3 percent increase.
By contrast, San Jose’s share of software-related job postings has declined from 15.8 percent in 2012, to 8.1 percent in 2017, a 7.7 percent drop.
Glassdoor points to several factors for the shift, including a distribution of software jobs expanding outward from Silicon Valley toward smaller, more affordable metro areas with fast-growing clusters of tech employers.
It also said tech jobs are no longer concentrated in the “tech” industry.
“Today, every company is trying to transform itself into a tech company, and roles related to software engineering are spreading into retail, finance and other industries as employers rely on big data, mobile apps, and automation to deliver value to customers,” Glassdoor said.
In addition to Washington and Seattle, Glassdoor says software jobs are growing rapidly in Detroit, Denver and Austin.
“Although Silicon Valley will almost certainly remain among the nation’s top tech hubs for decades to come, the world of software jobs is flattening — both by industry and geography — and the big winners in coming years are likely to be the lower-cost U.S. metros with fast-growing tech clusters that have attracted a rising share of software job postings in recent years,” Glassdoor said.
See the Glassdoor findings.
