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There’s a lot of reasons why Charleston is the number one city in the country. From its horse drawn carriages to its iconic rainbow-colored houses, Charleston is a special place. With the beaches only a 15 minute drive from downtown, Charleston’s southern charm has helped the city become the number one mid-sized U.S metro area for IT job growth.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Charleston has added 4,000 jobs in the past 5 years. The Holy City is home to more than 250 tech companies employing 11,000 people. These skyrocketing numbers have given Charleston the nickname “Silicon Harbor.”
Tech jobs comprise about 3% of jobs in the region, and account for 5% of the area’s payroll of $14 billion just last year. The tech market is hot business right now with about 4% of the U.S. workforce employed in the industry, which is about 8% of the national economy. Last year, the industry expanded to 7.3 million workers in jobs for software, cybersecurity, and cloud computing according to the technology association CompTIA.
Image Credit: Jonathan Boncek/ Charleston City Paper
Charleston’s unique waterfront city blended with affordability, a modern laid-back lifestyle, and a booming tech industry are hard to compete against when deciding on a city to work and live in. Charleston’s competition includes Austin, Scottsdale, Arizona, and San Francisco. PeopleMatter renovated a 123-year-old structure that was once a clothing store and then a bakery. The crumbling building is now a state-of-the-art headquarters that opened in 2013 and is home to 120 employees. Another software firm, BoomTown is on the rise with more start-ups popping up on the upper peninsula.
Charleston is building a tech community that has seen extensive growth in the past several years. More and more buildings are taking form with more and more employees pouring in. In a very competitive marketplace, all of the wonders that Charleston has to offer has allowed the city to pull ahead in the tech community.