2016 Oakland Tech Trends Report -...

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  • BY THE NUMBERSThe tech sectors presence in the City of Oakland

    has continued to rapidly expand over the past year.

    The citys 446 total tech establishments employed

    roughly 6,150 workers in 2015, an increase of 11.3%

    over the previous year.

    This marks the tech sectors fastest pace of

    growth since the onset of the economic recovery in

    2009. Overall, tech employment in Oakland is up

    50.3% since the trough of the recession in the

    second quarter of 2009.

    Growing tech employment across the Bay Area

    has been to the benefit of workers involved in the

    broader professional, scientific, and technical serv-

    ices occupation. In particular, a growing number of

    local workers have found employment as soware

    developers and computer and information systems

    Managers due to the diverse businesses attracted

    by the regions burgeoning tech sector.

    Tech wages, which are some of the highest in

    the city, continue to grow at a solid clip. The average

    tech employee earned just over $110,000 in 2015, an

    increase of 3.4% over the previous year.

    Internet publishing and web-search portals, and

    custom programming services remain the core of

    the local tech sector base, although employment

    gains have been spread across a diverse array of tech

    subsectors over the past year.

    2016 Oakland Tech Trends Report

    September, 2016

    OAKLAND TECH EMPLOYMENTQ1-08, Q2-15

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    INTRODUCTION

    The tech sector, which comprises companies that focus on the creation of new digitalproducts and services, continues to expand its presence in the City of Oakland. The cityscore tech clusters Internet publishing and web-search portals and custom programmingservices have grown robustly over the past year, as have a number of nascent subsectors relatedto online business and shopping. Moreover, the wages paid to the citys tech workforce areamong the highest in the region. Indeed, the strong growth emanating from the citys techsector, especially those located near downtown Oakland, has set the stage for growth in otherkey sectors of the local economy.

  • Oaklands nascent tech sector has continued to attract newbusinesses to the region. Since the end of 2014, 15 new tech estab-lishments have opened up shop in the city. At the same time, existing techcompanies, confident in the regions near-term economic outlook, havecontinued to expand their payrolls. Oakland is now home to 236 tech establishments with more than 3employees, and has a heavy concentration of establishments located inthe greater downtown region. Furthermore, tech sector employment ingreater downtown Oakland has been a major driver of employmentgrowth in the broader professional, scientific, technical, and managementindustry. This industry is heavily concentrated in this region due in large

    part to the growing tech presence and has been a signifi-cant source of new, high-wage jobs for Oakland resi-dents. The size of the average tech company in Oaklandcontinues to grow, a sign that many of the citys core techcompanies remain on their path to maturity. Several smaller subsectors within tech have done ex-ceptionally well lately, posting double-digit gains overthe past year and as much as triple-digit growth over thepast 5 years. These include:1) Soware publishers 2) E-markets, agents, and brokers3) Internet publishing and search portals The employment opportunities afforded by Oaklandsgrowing tech presence remain amongst the best the cityhas to offer. The typical worker in all but one of the citys

    tech subsectors earns more than the city average. In fact,three of the citys largest tech subsectors pay the averageworker a six-figure salary. The stagnant wages observed in the citys tech sectorin 2013 and 2014 can be attributed to the mix of jobs addedduring this time period. A disproportionate number ofrelatively low-wage positions were filled during theseyears, slowing the upward march of the sectors averageannual wage. However, the most recent data reflect the fact thatwages paid to tech workers are rising once again.

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    OAKLAND TECH ESTABLISHMENTSQ1-08, Q3-15

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    CITY OF OAKLAND TECH EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES BY SUBSECTORQ3-15

    TECH IN CONTEXT

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    TOP TECH SUBSECTORS IN OAKLANDQ1-08 to Q3-15

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    OAKLAND TECH WAGESQ1-08 to Q3-15

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    OAKLAND TECH WORKERSRACE/ETHNICITY COMPOSITION, 2014

    DEMOGRAPHICS

    While the data somewhatlimits our ability to look atOakland residents who also work inthe citys tech sector, it is clear thatOakland supplies a more diverse setof workers to the Bay Areas techfirms than surrounding tech hubs.This owes, in part, to the fact thatOakland has a more diverse racial/ethnic composition than San Joseand San Francisco. The diversity of Oaklands techworkforce remains intact aeranother year of stellar growth.Oaklands local tech sector is stillcomprised of larger contingents ofblack (5.6%), white (59.8%), andmultiracial (5.3%) workers comparedwith neighboring regions. AlthoughOakland does better than its neigh-bors in this regard, the citys diversitycreates an opportunity for furtherinclusion that has not yet beenrealized. Oakland's tech industry alsoremains somewhat more diversefrom a gender perspective: over one-third of all tech workers who live inOakland are female, compared with31% or less in San Francisco and SanJose.

    OAKLAND TECH WORKERS: GENDER

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    Oakland Chamber of Commerce 475 14th Street Oakland, CA 94612(510) 874-4800 www.oaklandchamber.com

    CITY OF OAKLANDTECH ESTABLISHMENTS 2015

    ON THE MAP Greater downtown Oakland is the citysunofficial tech hub. The City Center is home to many ofOaklands landmark tech companies, with a strong presencein services such as custom programming and graphicdesign. Additi onally, there is a cluster of establishmentsengaged in Internet publishing and web-search portals.