The Brookings Institute, a research center and think tank based in Washington, D.C., reported on the state of digitalization of jobs nationwide. The report noted that digitalization has increased over the past two decades, which is no surprise.
It ranked 750 different jobs on how digitized they are becoming, ranking them low, medium, and high based on a digitization score. Jobs that ranked high tend to offer higher salaries than jobs ranked lower on their scale.
The report then ranked metro areas based on their level of digitalization, and Austin was third on the list!
That doesn’t mean that everyone in Austin is a software engineer. Because of the pandemic, many workers moved their offices into their homes and began relying on Zoom and Slack, and other digital tools and processes to do their job. That counts as digitalization.
In addition, Austin is home to the University of Texas at Austin and other higher learning institutions, all of which are highly digitalized.
Cryptocurrency, Web3 and Blockchain
Business and tech leaders want to take advantage of the highly digitalized population and make Austin a hub for cryptocurrency, blockchain and W3 technologies. Mayor Steve Adler said that Austin is a forward-looking city and the type of place where innovation happens fast, so it’s a good fit.
Capital Factory, an Austin based accelerator is in a partnership to cultivate and encourage more emerging tech companies in Austin. Funding will primarily be used for investment challenges where companies compete for grants. CEO Joshua Baer wants to create an environment that makes “Austin a place where people come to try new things, come to innovate, and come to build and grow.”
CEO of Austin based DivInc, Preston James, wants the city to create opportunities for underrepresented communities in the budding Web3 space, to make Austin a more diverse, inclusive city. DivInc is a nonprofit that focuses on startups run by women and people of color.
A group called the Texas Workgroup on Blockchain Matters has the goal of strengthening the growing blockchain industry in Austin. They issued a report to help local governments understand the industry and made recommendations for how it can be used in a variety of applications. The large tech industry in Austin is helping to attract blockchain related companies and talent. Energy assets in Austin are attracting bitcoin mining, too.
Growth in Austin
Austin has broken records for job growth and low unemployment over the past year. According to a Dice report, the city had the fifth-highest number of job postings of all tech cities last year. Tech-related manufacturing is gearing up as well, with the promise of well-paying jobs.
Even with talk of recession, Austin is positioned to come out ahead. Tech companies and investors are putting their money on Austin, where the diverse tech ecosystem and an educated workforce graduating from the local universities continue to attract businesses.
