In USA Today, Sam Zuckerman discusses the explosion of tech jobs and their impact on urban areas. While Zukerman notes the ability of tech jobs to bring economic growth to cities, he also highlights the negatives that come with the tech economy, primarily the increasingly high cost of housing that forces long-term resdients to move out. Zuckerman cites PPI Chief Economic Strategist Michael Mandel on an index he constructed to determine the importance of tech to a city’s economy. Zuckerman also quotes Mandel on the impact of the tech economy:
Areas with a faster growing tech sector tend to have faster growing non-tech employment as well,” Mandel said. Nationwide, private-sector non-tech wage and salary employment rose 5.4% from 2009 to 2013. But in the 10 large U.S. counties where growth of tech jobs had the biggest economic impact, non-tech jobs rose 10%, almost twice that rate, according to Mandel’s preliminary analysis.
“As techie ranks swell and the overall economy expands at a faster pace, demand for shelter heats up. That leaves more and more people priced out of the housing market.”
The full article can be found on USA Today’s website.
