RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – If public perception is a factor when it comes to companies’ ability to recruit talent then Raleigh and the Triangle are in trouble as competition continues for economic development projects like HQ2 and Apple. So says a new study.
As the waits continue for Amazon’s HQ2 decision and where a new Apple campus will be built, Raleigh is not getting the credit it deserves as a tech hub, says a new report from Thinkful, a national coding school which has a presence in Raleigh.
It’s the second most “Underrated and Underestimated” tech hub.
That’s big trouble when it comes to companies being able to recruit talent in a job market that is already exceptionally tight with unemployment under 4 percent, the GDP growing at 4 percent and more than 20,000 open tech jobs already in North Carolina alone.
“[O]ur research suggests that jobseekers don’t perceive Raleigh as even a top 20 tech city,” Thinkful’s Adam Levenson says. Yet one of the studies that Thinkful’s study is based on rates Raleigh as No. 4 for pure tech talent.
[Note: TechWire reported on that CBRE analysis back on July 30. If determined that Raleigh ranked sixth for talent and fourth for tech jobs among the HQ2 contenders.]
And when it comes to capital available for investment in startups, the broader Research Triangle ranks in the middle of the pack.
While the study does not focus exclusively on the 20 metro areas selected by Amazon as finalists for the multi-billion-dollar HQ2 project, many of those metros are included.
Thinkful’s analysis ranks Washington, D.C., Raleigh and San Jose as the “most underrated” tech hubs.
The “rankings of the most underrated tech hubs show that there can be a significant disconnect between the quality of city’s tech talent and the perception of that city’s talent among job seekers,” says Thinkful in the study. “While the impact of this disconnect is hard to quantify, metros that scored low among job seekers should heed some concern about their ability to recruit top talent.”
Amazon has cited from the launch of the HQ2 vetting process a year ago that the availability of talent is among its most important requirements.
Interestingly, contrary to what the Thinkful study might indicate, the Washington, D.C. area is widely regarded as the odds-on choice to land HQ2.
Austin lessons
The Skinny reached out to Thinkful’s Levenson to get more insight into the report., asking:
So what does Thinkful conclude about the meaning of the survey for Raleigh and other areas? Is there a perception problem that needs to be addressed?
“We’re not urban planners/economic developers so in general, I think we’d prefer to defer to them to interpret the data. That said, we do think that the data suggests that some cities including Raleigh do have a perception problem,” Levenson explained.
He then hit what is a sore spot for Raleigh and Triangle recruiters: Look at what Austin, Texas is doing.
“I don’t have a specific solution other than to look into what Austin is doing,” Levenson said. “Despite not being a top 3 tech talent city nor a top 8 city when it comes to venture capital [in two reports used as the basis for Thinkful’s assessment], they topped our poll in both categories.”
Ouch.
“I think SXSW is certainly one example,” Levenson pointed out. “With all the big tech announcements that take place during that event, it creates the perception that Austin is a center of innovation.”
Thinkful relied in part on a report from corporate real estate firm CBRE – the study that rated Raleigh No. 4 for talent – and investment capital from the Martin Prosperity Institute to help determine its own findings. The third leg of the report was an online poll of some 300 people who were asked about what cities outside San Francisco they considered tech hubs and where venture capital was most available.
As usual, Raleigh is cited in one (CBRE) and the Triangle at large in the other.
We asked Levenson:
The report talks about perception of Raleigh as a tech hub yet the funding focuses on Research Triangle. Why the difference?
“The report by CBRE looks at the city of Raleigh specifically while the Martin Prosperity Institute report looks at a larger geographical area including Raleigh and Durham,” he explained.
“While it would have been more convenient if the two reports looked at the same exact territory (so we could have created a combined ranking) we felt like presenting it this way was more honest.”
The Thinkful study only adds to confusion about Raleigh-the Triangle-Durham based on metropolitan statistical area data as compiled by the federal government is a never-ending problem. As Amazon has said, the Triangle is under consideration, not just Raleigh. But the initial announcement of Raleigh created confusion that has never fully dissipated.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos recently reiterated that Amazon will announce its HQ2 winner before the end of the year. As for the Apple announcement, the company says there is no timeline for any kind of a decision.
You can read the full Thinkful report online.
