Of the more than 585,000 Texans that comprise the state’s tech sector, nearly 142,000 work in the Houston metro.
However, Houston’s tech sector has grown minimally of late, as in 2015 the industry’s employment base expanded by only 0.2 percent in comparison to 2014, according to data from the Computing Technology Industry Association.
The good news, those employed within the Houston tech industry last year earned an annual average wage of roughly $105,000, making these individuals prime candidates for homeownership – if they already don’t own.
Engineering and IT service-related jobs account for more than 81,000 of the nearly 142,000 tech jobs in the metro. Additionally, the tech industry accounts for nearly six percent of Houston’s total private sector employment base.
It will be interesting to see if Houston’s tech industry grows at all this year, as the metro is projected to add only 22,000 total jobs. *the volume of job postings for tech occupations during the fourth quarter of last year rose by 1.5 percent on a year-over-year basis.
Another industry on the apparent rise in Houston is the “creative sector.” A recent study commissioned by Houston Arts Alliance, predicted that from 2014 to 2019 growth among creative occupations will ise by 10 percent.
The study defined creative-sector industries as those where a creative or artistic element is an integral part of product delivery or a service. Examples include graphic design, record production, architecture, photography, advertising, film/video production, writing, and editorial jobs in both creative industries and more traditional businesses.
The Texas tech trio
Last year, Texas added nearly 14,000 tech jobs, which equated to 2.4 percent year-over-year employment growth within the sector. At the same time the average tech wage in the state rose to nearly $100,000, with IT and engineering services accounting for the highest volume of tech jobs.
As imagined, the overall increase in tech jobs is the result of growth that’s occurring within the state’s other three major metros.
Austin and Dallas saw employment growth of 3.4 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively, last year. The average tech industry wage in Austin stood at $103,600. In Big D, the average tech worker earns $105,400.
The San Antonio metro saw a smaller increase in its tech workforce, a 2 percent year-over-year rise. Entering 2016, the metro’s tech sector employed nearly 35,000 people, with the average employee earning $80,000.
