As one of the leading companies in tech news, GeekWire has been tracking the number of out-of-town tech companies that have opened engineering centers in the Seattle area for the past few years, and as they recently reported, “the list has doubled in size.” The addition of Baidu’s new Bellevue office brought their list to over 100, and GeekWire admits that “despite our diligence in documenting this trend, we’ve probably missed one or two along the way.”
With engineering outposts for larger companies such as Apple, Google, Facebook and Alibaba plus local tech giants including Microsoft and Amazon, there are now a staggering “136,910 tech jobs in Seattle,” which represents “a 33 percent increase since 2011.” What’s more, is these employment opportunities are lucrative, with “an average wage of $113,906.”
According to GeekWire, these new engineering facilities are changing the Emerald City’s tech community, because they are “adding more competition for Seattle’s tech talent all the time.” In addition, the influx of new arrivals “is also diversifying the tech landscape of Seattle, creating a more vibrant tech ecosystem that goes beyond the historical roots” of locally based companies.
Given GeekWire’s latest stats, it comes as no surprise that Seattle was recently ranked the second coolest city in the U.S. by Forbes, with the strong economy and tech industry helping bolster the Emerald City’s “coolness” factor.
Original source on RSIR