Whos In DMV Tech, And Where Do They Actually Work?

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From defense contractors to quantum pioneers, new entrants to the electric vehicle transition and more, the D.C. region's technology ecosystem is as diverse as it is geographically dispersed.

With co-working spaces, office complexes and universities scattered throughout the region (not to mention the countless government agencies that directly employ tech workers), understanding the "who" and "where" of DC tech is much more difficult than citing Reston. or Columbia's commercial corridors. Heights and said, “This is it. »

As part of our ever-evolving efforts to better understand the tech workforce in our markets, we at Technical.ly (or more accurately, our data-loving CEO Christopher Wink) recently analyzed data from our Tech Economy Datasheet. The platform, which launched in beta earlier this year, uses proprietary data from job analytics company Lightcast to provide a statistically illustrated picture of the tech talent and people in relevant roles in specific regions of the country. This has already impacted key reporting in our other key markets - Philadelphia, Delaware, Baltimore and Pittsburgh.

During this in-depth analysis, Wink also pulled data from various U.S. Census sources. Here is some information from these sources:

1. Black and Hispanic tech workers are underrepresented.

The table provides a breakdown of DC MSA technicians by race. (Technical.ly/Christopher Wink)

For the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, the dashboard counted 271,291 technology jobs and 319,625 technical jobs—a distinction between tech jobs and any role the federal government calls “information and technology,” regardless of sector. Of all these tech workers in the DC-Arlington-Alexandra Metropolitan Statistical Area, 18.7% are black and 5.7% are non-white Hispanic. These figures are lower than the region's population, which for these groups is 24% and 17% respectively.

The difference is even greater among software developers, whose average salary in Washington will be $134,063 by 2022, according to the dashboard, one of the highest pay levels of any country. Only 8.95% of software developers are black, and 3.96% are Hispanic or Latino.

As is the case with the tech workforce in many other metropolitan areas, white and Asian workers are overrepresented relative to their presence in the region's overall population. White engineers make up 52.4% of all engineers, 45.24% of software developers, and 42% of the total population; 19.9% ​​of all engineers are Asian, 39.31% in the software industry and 11% in the region.

2. Residents of neighborhoods moving in the opposite direction mostly remain in the surrounding neighborhoods.

A graph showing the travel purposes of Washington residents. (Technical.ly/Christopher Wink)

Crowded subway stations are a common sight every weekday morning in the Washington, D.C. suburbs. But whatever the shift suggests, many county residents—tech and non-tech workers alike—are doing the opposite and heading to these suburbs or further afield.

From 2016 to 2020, about 83,000 Washingtonians commuted to work in Virginia and Maryland, according to Wink's analysis of the American Community Survey's five-year commuter flow. The largest share came from Montgomery County, Maryland (pop. 22,586) and Arlington County, Virginia (pop. 18,426). ). Other popular locations include Prince George's County, Maryland (16,239 people) and Fairfax County, Virginia (14,514 people). The numbers appear to continue to decline as people leave the area, but not linearly: Baltimore, Maryland's largest city, has 1,396 commuters, and cities like Anne Arundel County and Howard County have 1,090 between the two cities. . or 927 DC passengers. .

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Of course, a lot has changed in the tech landscape and urban workforce across the country since data collection ended in 2020. So we want to know whether this information, which is specifically for County residents, always reflects what you know about your workplace.

Is long-distance travel less common than these data suggest? Please let us know by emailing us at dc@technical.ly.com.

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From a media perspective

He gave up the NBA for a career in technology and a semiconductor company!