As well as our Texas economy has withstood the current economic storm, it cannot afford to miss out on the newest economic ecosystem … the "App Economy." According to a recent study conducted by TechNet, the bipartisan policy and political network of technology CEOs that promotes the growth of the innovation economy, there are now roughly 466,000 jobs in the "App Economy" in the United States, up from zero just five years ago in 2007.
To help define this newest phenomenon, the study quantifies the total number of App Economy jobs to include jobs at ‘pure' app firms such as Zynga as well as app-related jobs at large companies such as Amazon, and AT&T, as well as app ‘infrastructure' jobs at core firms such as Google, and Facebook. In addition, the App Economy total includes employment spillovers to the rest of the economy. For instance, when it comes to employment impacts, each app represents jobs-for programmers, for user interface designers, for marketers, for managers, and for support staff.
Though Texas is on the racetrack, we are lagging well behind the competition. The top four States for App Economy jobs by percentage are:
California (23.8%) New York (6.9%) Washington (6.4%) Texas (5.4%)
Texas barely made it into the top ten major metro areas when it comes to App Economy jobs:
The top U.S. Metro Areas with the highest percentage of App Economy jobs are:
New York-Northern N.J.-Long Island (9.2%) San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont (8.5%) San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (6.3%) Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue (5.7%) Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana (5.1%) Washington-Arlington-Alexandria (4.8%) Chicago-Naperville-Joliet (3.5%) Boston-Cambridge-Quincy (3.5%) Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta (3.3%) Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington (2.6%)
The Texas Public Policy Foundation recently hosted a Policy Orientation panel to discuss how Texas lags behind the leaders in high tech job growth. Why our incredibly favorable business climate is not attracting more tech jobs is not clear. But what is clear from our overall national leading jobs record is that the best hope for attracting tech jobs is more of the same-lower taxes, less regulation, and a stronger civil justice system. Let's get on board this fast moving phenomenon!
-The Honorable Nathan Macias