Glassdoor ranks KC No. 3 in nation for jobs; software engineers wanted
September 19, 2017 | Meghan LeVota
The Midwest is hiring.
And Kansas City stands out among the best in the region, according to a new study.
Popular job search site Glassdoor released a list of the top cities for jobs, ranked by affordability, hireability and employee job satisfaction. Kansas City nabbed a No. 3 spot on the list, following Pittsburgh at No. 1 and Indianapolis at No. 2.
For Kansas City tech leaders, it isn’t a surprise, said Ryan Weber, president of KC Tech Council.
“Locally, we’ve known Kansas City is a great place to live and work,” Weber said. “However, it’s always validating to have this feeling backed up by data.”
Kansas City has 90,649 job openings, a median base salary of $45,000 and a median home value of $159,400, according to the Glassdoor study. Hot jobs include software engineers, research associates and audit managers, the report says, also noting that employees in Kansas City are relatively satisfied.
The report further established Kansas City on the tech scene, Weber said.
“Because of the growth we’ve experienced over the last several years, Kansas City is now recognized as a tech hub,” he said. “However, Kansas Citians need to take notice of the fact that there are many other Midwestern cities on that list, and we have plenty of competition.”
Kansas City trails not too far behind Pittsburgh and Indianapolis, yet such other regional players as St. Louis, Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland also fared well on the jobs report.
Coastal tech hubs San Francisco, New York and Boston were notably absent, not even cracking the top 25 of the report.
“Cost is the largest threat facing America’s big coastal cities,” Weber said. “They also happen to have a high concentration of tech companies. These cities have extremely competitive job markets and finding a ‘good job’ can be a challenge, even for talented workers.”
Despite the overall rank as No. 3, Kansas City is the best place for software engineers, the report shows.
“The landscape in Kansas City is changing before our eyes: Technology companies have become the largest employers in the region,” Weber said. “One of the largest needs of those big tech employers is software engineers.”
Although the report is good news for the local tech community, the massive number of job openings — 90,649 — shouldn’t be ignored, Weber said.
Yet, Kansas City isn’t alone in this phenomenon. Many American cities have a disproportionate number of available jobs, which Weber says is because of a shortage of a specific kind of labor.
“No city in America has an abundance of high-skilled labor with industry experience,” he said. “In Kansas City’s tech industry, the most in-demand jobs are mid-level positions requiring three to five years of experience.”
KC Tech Council released a report in June stating that Kansas City’s tech industry is directly responsible for 93,880 jobs. But despite growth in the industry, 4,699 tech jobs remained open in the Kansas City area, according to the report. Weber recommended a shift in education to fill the labor gap.
Kansas City’s tech workforce recently made the headlines in August when TechCrunch recognized the metro for its rapid tech growth.
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