Turner: Houston has 'made strides to build ecosystem' as city is named No. 2 technology hub in U.S.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the City of Houston is on its way to becoming one of the technology hubs in the U.S. thanks to a migration of highly skilled workers attracted by its job market.

A report on Channel 13 Eyewitness News ranked the city No. 2 in the country during the COVID-19 pandemic with Miami in the No. 1 spot and Dallas-Fort Worth third.

"A couple years ago, I announced our city was going to expand our footprint in the tech and innovation space,” Turner said in a tweet. “We have made strides to build out our ecosystem and it is great to see young talent migrate to Silicon Bayou to jumpstart their career."    

According to the report Houston, the state’s largest city, is desirable because of its business-friendly environment.

The 13 Eyewitness report said 14 major cities in the U.S. were ranked based on the number of immigrating software and information technology (IT) workers for the period March 2020 to February 2021. During that time and the pandemic, Houston has seen a big influx of high-tech workers, the report noted.

Miami registered a gain of 15.4%, Houston 10.4% and Dallas-Fort Worth 8.6%.

For years, the image of the high-tech industry in Silicon Valley in California had stayed relatively stagnant, according to a report in newsstack.com, with about the same number of workers during 2020 (one-to-one) moving in as moving out. High housing prices in the Bay Area and income taxes other states don’t have are cited as reasons.

A report in Houston Innovation Map said San Francisco lost 34.8% in arriving and departing IT workers.

What remains uncertain is the impact the pandemic will have on job trends with the growth of remote working.

The report said according to a study done by ComTIA, Houston is home to 243,908 high-tech workers. That workforce grew 12.3% from 2010 to 2019.