Dallas, Austin rank high as ‘tech towns’

​​​​​​​​​​DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. – Texas’ tech prowess pushed it ahead of some longtime rivals in a new report.

Austin-Round Rock and Dallas-Fort Worth took the third and sixth spots, respectively, on the 2018 "Tech Town Index" from the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA).

Austin was on the list for its expected 15 percent information technology (IT) job growth of the next five years. There were 37,551 IT job postings between August 2017 and July 2018.

The cost of living in Austin is 3.4 percent lower than the national average, and workers get paid $0.98 more per hour. The median salary for IT workers is $82,285.

In Dallas-Fort Worth, there were 108,975 IT job postings in the 12 months ending in July 2018. IT jobs are expected to grow 10 percent over the next five years.

The cost of living is 1.2 percent lower than the national average in DFW, and workers get paid $2.10 more per hour. IT pros have a median salary of $84,614.

The rest of the top ten rankings are:

• No. 1 Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, N.C.-S.C.;

• No. 2 Raleigh, N.C.;

• No. 4 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.;

• No. 5 San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward;

• No. 7 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue;

• No. 8 Denver-Aurora-Lakewood;

• No. 9 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell; and

• No. 10 Huntsville, Ala.

CompTIA’s index counts factors such as information technology job ads, cost of living, and job growth.​​