Paul TostoI don’t usually put a lot of stock in city rankings. But a new look at the Best Cities for Tech Jobs seems to have some good research behind it. And if you’re a tech booster in the Twin Cities, you will not be pleased by the numbers.
NewGeography, a site that’s good at telling stories using data and demographics, put together the tech jobs rankings using data crunched by the economics research group EMSI. It counted some 95 federally recognized science, technology, engineering, and mathematics occupations — yes, the STEM jobs believed to be the keys to our economic future.
No shock that Seattle tops the list. But as you scroll down looking for the Twin Cities, you find Jacksonville, Fla., Cincinnati, Columbus and other smaller cities. Minneapolis-St. Paul is ranked 26 on the list.
The worrisome thing is that Minnesota officials have made STEM education and jobs a priority for years. So if we’ve made STEM education a priority in Minnesota, pouring resources into building a trained workforce capable of taking these jobs, will the jobs really come?
Here’s NewGeography’s Top 30:
If it’s any consolation to the Wisconsin’s-eating-our-economic-lunch crowd, the Milwaukee metro area comes in ranked 50 in the tech jobs list.
— Paul Tosto