Austin Softwate Engineering Market

[Account Closed]

Hello, I am looking into Austin, TX software engineering market and can't seem to get a conclusive data on which side the city is at this point and where it is possibly heading. I jotted down two possibilities. Basically salary is somewhat related to availabilities of tech companies and the size of engineers' talent pool in the city.

Possibility 1: There are more companies which means more chances to switch between companies. And that means companies need to have more lucrative offer to attract engineers from limited talent pool and that can boost salary. Meaing cost of labor will be higher.

Possibility 2: There are less companies, but more people are moving into austin, so companies have more options to choose from given large talent pool, so they lower the salary because engineers will settle for less salary just to secure a job. This way, cost of labor is lower.

So, which one does Austin currently fall under? The comparision is with, say, a high tax city like Philadelphia, PA. More importantly I want to know, where Austin stands now or heading toward in next 5 years based on more tech companies building their offices there and more people moving in there.

Thank you so much for your insight!

[Andreis Bergeron]

Mahmuda - I think you have to consider these labor market scenarios with a short, medium, and long-term lens. In the short-term, it seems to me like lots of companies are moving to Austin, which is in-turn attracting more software engineers. Of course, if salaries stay very high into the medium or long-term, naturally more software engineers will move to Austin, which would lower salaries. 

In any case, the Austin markets (real estate and labor) are very robust, and I don't see that changing in the near future.