Study: Missouri tops Kansas in tech job growth
August 27, 2015 | Ashley Jost
Part of the Kansas City metro area was represented on a recent report of states showing the most growth for tech-related jobs.
Missouri hung on to the bottom end of Dice.com’s 17-state list at No. 15, showing 1.17 percent job growth in the tech industry during the last six months.
KCnext President Ryan Weber chalks it up to the pipeline of talent, to some extent. Weber’s organization works to grow the tech industry in the Kansas City metro.
“I would attribute that to the ability of the state’s education system to produce the talent that it does,” Weber said about Missouri, pointing to the University of Missouri and the Missouri University of Science and Technology in particular, which yield the bulk of the state’s graduates in tech-related fields. “In general, they’re producing more talent than the state of Kansas, which might explain why Missouri [made the list].”
Weber added that the Kansas City metro area currently has more than 2,000 open tech positions. Universities must help fill that need if the metro area is to realize its potential as a top tech hub, Weber previously said.
Dice.com used aggregated data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on hiring in computer systems design and related tech services to compile the list. Dice is a 24-year old website that focuses on technology job postings. The company has published a similar tech growth list using federal statistics for the last four years.
Minnesota topped this list with 8.36 percent growth, which the blog attributes to steady quarter-over-quarter growth during the last year.
Here’s the list in full, along with percentage increases in states’ tech populations:
- Minnesota (8.36 percent)
- Utah (5.75 percent)
- Nebraska (5.22 percent)
- Michigan (4.47 percent)
- Florida (4.27 percent)
- Massachusetts (3.75 percent)
- New York (3.58 percent)
- Maryland (3.45 percent)
- Oregon (3.42 percent)
- California (3.04 percent)
- Virginia (2.31 percent)
- Illinois (2.14 percent)
- Texas (1.97 percent)
- Ohio (1.39 percent)
- Missouri (1.17 percent)
- Georgia (0.96 percent)
- New Jersey (0.43 percent)
2015 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Mobility Designed to ‘bottle lightning’ from viral video success
The international spotlight is shining bright on Mobility Designed, a Kansas City startup that’s snagged tens-of-millions of viewers interested in their futuristic crutches. Last week, Mobility Designed’s ergonomic crutch was featured in a Tech Insider video that’s now attracted more than 38 million views around the world. That particular video has now been re-edited and…
Byrd: What we can learn from 5 corporate innovation blunders
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. Most corporations don’t want innovation, they just say they do. Corporate leaders talk about radical and disruptive ideas, but is that truly all that innovation is? In it’s purest form, innovation creates more effective processes, products and ideas that will in turn increase…
106-years-young Hallmark is evolving with the collaborative economy
The collaborative economy is everywhere. You may have heard it by another name — like the sharing, on-demand, access, peer, freelance or gig economy. You’ve definitely heard of its national headliners Uber and Airbnb, but it also has a local presence with firms like PopBookings, Farmobile and MachineryLink. Since first showing up on radars eight…
The Collective Funds targets Kansas City startups with $10M
The Collective Funds — a new venture capital group in Kansas City — will be exclusively targeting early-stage firms in the area starting as early as this summer. Led by four Kansas City entrepreneurs, the $10 million fund aims to fill an area funding gap as well as inspire a cultural shift among…