Tech News

Dallas-Fort Worth computes No. 3 ranking among America's top metros for tech jobs

Fort Worth cityscape with Seventh Street Bridge

Dallas-Fort Worth is at the top the list for projected growth in tech jobs.

Sky Noir Photography by Bill Dickinson/Getty Images

For the third year in a row, Austin ranks first on a closely watched list of the best places in the U.S. for tech jobs — and Dallas-Fort Worth isn't far behind, at No. 3.

For the latest version of its Tech Town Index, CompTIA, a trade group for the tech industry, looked at 20 metros with populations over 250,000 where demand for tech workers is highest. The metros were then ranked based on cost of living, number of postings for open tech positions in 2021, and projected job growth over both the next 12 months and next five years.

Austin landed at No. 1 again this year, followed in descending order by San Jose, California; Dallas-Fort Worth; Atlanta, Georgia; and Huntsville, Alabama. No other Texas metro appears in the top 10.

CompTIA says the Austin area offers “an attractive combination of opportunity, affordability, and good old-fashioned real estate that keeps technology companies — and talent — flocking to the Lone Star State’s capital city.”

Last year, 64,481 technology job openings were posted in the Austin area, according to CompTIA. The group says Austin continues to top the list for one-year (3.75 percent) and five-year (13.9 percent) projected growth in tech jobs. Companies like Deloitte, Dell Technologies, General Motors, and IBM are among the top recruiters of tech pros in the metro area.

But Austin wasn't first in every category. The area ranked sixth among U.S. metros for the addition of tech jobs last year (1,846), according to CompTIA. Dallas-Fort Worth grabbed the No. 1 spot, adding 5,321 tech jobs in 2021.

DFW is home to the state’s biggest tech workforce (313,447 workers in 2021, ranked sixth in the country). This year, that figure is expected to rise to 321,138, representing a one-year increase of 2.5 percent.

Houston had 134,436 tech jobs in 2021, CompTIA says. This year’s number is expected to be about the same (134,754). Meanwhile, San Antonio had 49,801 tech jobs last year, with the workforce projected to grow to 50,971 this year.

CompTIA poses the question of whether Austin can keep up its current pace of growth as a tech hub.

“Many believe it can. Experts cite ideal conditions for business creation like access to capital, skilled workers, and affordable office space as key factors appealing to startups and enterprise companies alike. … But the IT pros who live and work in Austin say that it’s the attention to work-life balance, access to educational opportunities, and the city’s distinctive culture that keep them working in Austin — and feeling wonderfully weird,” CompTIA says.

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Death Penalty

Tarrant County man gets death for murder of convenience store owner

Tarrant County Sheriff's Office

Christopher Turner

A man received the death penalty for his 2020 cold-blooded execution of a convenience store owner.

According to a release from the office of Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Phil Sorrells, a Tarrant County jury sentenced Christopher Karon Turner, 48, to death on November 20 for executing convenience store owner Anwar Ali during a robbery. Tarrant County Assistant District Attorneys Charles Boulware and Allenna Bangs represented the state.

On March 27, 2020, at around 6:15 am, Turner, a convicted felon, wore a surgical mask and a glove and entered the Super Big Country Mart in an unincorporated area of Tarrant County south of Fort Worth. There, he held a gun to the back of Anwar Ali, the 62-year-old store owner, and walked him through the store.

Ali did everything Turner demanded, including opening the cash register to give him money. And yet Turner forced Ali into the bathroom and onto his knees, and shot him in the neck. Ali was discovered, dead in the bathroom, about an hour later.

Turner fled the store in Ali's Toyota minivan with the money from the register and Ali's wallet. In the van, he found more than $50,000 cash in a black bag. Over the next few days, Turner went on a shopping spree, buying cars, jewelry, drugs, clothes, and more. He and others used cash and a credit card that belonged to Ali.

Turner fled to Colorado where U.S. Marshals arrested him. On his body they found a firearm which was determined to be the murder weapon.

"This was a premeditated, cold-blooded murder," Boulware told the jury. "From the moment he was charged with this crime, he has tried to escape responsibility."

Bangs noted that before this trial began, Turner obtained the names of jurors and their telephone numbers, and gave them to an inmate charged with murder. At the trial on November 20, as Bangs addressed the jury, Turner tried to hold up a sign to the jury but was handcuffed by Sheriff's deputies who removed him from the courtroom, while he yelled out "she lied."

Ali came to the United States from Pakistan decades ago to pursue the American dream. Ali's son, Hussein, spoke in the courtroom after the death penalty was announced. "Thank you for giving us justice," Ali said. "I hope there are no more devils like this person."