OKC #1 In High-Tech Job Creation for 2009

[G.Walker]

Found this article today, re high-tech job growth in America, and Oklahoma City was #1 in high-tech job creation in 2009, the Oklahoma City reference is towards the end of the article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20101208/...c2010127438177

[semisimple]

That's great news, but it also shows just how far OKC lags in this area--ranked at #57 on the list, despite being the 44th largest metropolitan area.

A gain of roughly 900 jobs equated to a 5.4 percent increase, which means that greater OKC currently has about 17,600 "tech jobs."

By comparison, there were 65,400 in Austin (#23), 128,000 in Houston (#10), and 175,000 in Dallas-Fort Worth (#6).

http://images.businessweek.com/slide...ost-tech-jobs/

[earlywinegareth]

Nice to know Oklahoma's Quality Jobs program is attracting the right jobs. I remember when Seagate moved their design center to Colorado several years ago - seemed the high tech field around here was dead. All our tech grads knew they would have to leave the state to find work. Hopefully, that situation is turning around.

[TheTravellers]

Nice to know Oklahoma's Quality Jobs program is attracting the right jobs. I remember when Seagate moved their design center to Colorado several years ago - seemed the high tech field around here was dead. All our tech grads knew they would have to leave the state to find work. Hopefully, that situation is turning around.

I wonder if it is turning around, though. Maybe for engineers, telecom, etc., but for IT people (coders, admins, etc.), it may not be that great, according to my daily search agent results from careerbuilder, dice, and monster. I search daily for "unix or linux or solaris or aix or hp-ux" and I get very, very few hits (almost none for sys admin work) - a few DBA jobs, the same LAMP developer and Dell support jobs over and over, but I'd think there should be more hits for such a generic search. Maybe this isn't a huge unix-y city, though, not sure...

[Jethrol]

Was it just me or did that article seem to be focused on govt activities? They didn't really seem to address corporate job creation at all. I know that Chesapeake is hiring a lot of tech ppl but I tend to agree with TheTravellers....there doesn't seem to be a lot of opportunities for diverse tech skills here.

I would love to see OKC shed it's dependence on energy companies and attract many more high tech companies.....pure tech companies....those that make their money from tech and tech services. This is something we're lacking and IMO it's causing the brain drain to continue.

I went back to Uni for my second degree, Comp Sci, and graduated in 2007. Pretty much everyone I knew was looking to either go to grad school (out of state) or relocate to the west coast or Austin because the job markets were better there. This is a huge tragedy to me because we have some extremely talented and bright people here in OKC but they can make so much more money moving. Also the job markets are much more promising in other cities.

Take Dallas for comparison. When I was graduating there was something like 90 programming jobs on Monster here in OKC. In Dallas, it was something like 800 or so. My numbers might be off but I remember it being something like 10 times as many jobs openings. I haven't checked in a while but I would suspect it's a similar spread.

With big D being so close, some people will just commute down there during the week and keep their house here in OKC. Hell I've even considered that and still might if either I lose my job, get bored or see some better opportunities.

I think a step in the positive direction would be to increase funding for UCO CS department. They have been replacing professors with newer, younger professors that are more up to date on the latest trends in the computer industry. They've made HUGE changes to the CS degree including becoming ABET accredited and adding required labs for beginning CS courses.

I think the regents also need to lift the restrictions on advanced CS degrees. Currently UCO cannot offer a MS or PHD in Comp Sci because the regents won't allow it. That is ridiculous and needs to change.

Anyways, long rant but I really think OKC has a LOT to offer in the way of tech savvy work force and with our cost of living, we should be a great choice for companies. I'm not sure why this hasn't happened yet....perhaps it's changing.

[Spartan]

Well our best bet with tech jobs is to use it as a means of economic diversification, and that means focusing less on the high-tech jobs that might be created by Chesapeake, Devon, Chaparral, and other big energy corporations based here.

Also keep in mind that OKC's 17,000 or whatever is including "tech jobs" which by some counts, includes the janitors at hospitals.

[okcpulse]

Well our best bet with tech jobs is to use it as a means of economic diversification, and that means focusing less on the high-tech jobs that might be created by Chesapeake, Devon, Chaparral, and other big energy corporations based here.

Also keep in mind that OKC's 17,000 or whatever is including "tech jobs" which by some counts, includes the janitors at hospitals.

Are you sure about that? My company just submitted their employment numbers by job description. We employ 200 tech jobs out of an organization of 9,000. Janitors not included.

[dismayed]

In studies like this, when they refer to the "tech sector" they mean everything from the kid at your local Geek Squad who repairs computers, on up to software designers and engineers at large technology corporations.

[Rover]

In studies like this, when they refer to the "tech sector" they mean everything from the kid at your local Geek Squad who repairs computers, on up to software designers and engineers at large technology corporations.

Most studies state their parameters. Are you just guessing about this or did your verify it? Opinion or fact?

[HOT ROD]

so much for the OKC in the media Megathread idea. ...

[semisimple]

Also keep in mind that OKC's 17,000 or whatever is including "tech jobs" which by some counts, includes the janitors at hospitals.

In studies like this, when they refer to the "tech sector" they mean everything from the kid at your local Geek Squad who repairs computers, on up to software designers and engineers at large technology corporations.

You both may be right to some extent--there is no way to know based on the articles linked to in this thread.

But, average high-tech salaries quoted in the Business Week article I linked to were anywhere from $85k to $130k depending on the metro area (OKC's average high-tech salary wasn't available), which suggests that these numbers aren't really inflated too much by "fluff" like secretaries and janitorial staff.

[Kerry]

These numbers come from HR classifications. I forget the actual government form number but every company over 50 employees has to classify all employees by job type. There are no hospital janitors classified as "tech job".