"The four metro areas that have generated tech jobs at the fastest pace over the past 12 years are far outside the Bay Area; they are in the southern half of the country, in places with lower costs of living and generally friendly business climates. Two are surprising metro areas with a less than stellar degree of tech cred in the past: Houston-Sugarland-Baytown, Texas, and Nashville-Franklin-Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Although there is not much of a role for social media in the Houston Area, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) employment has expanded 24% in Houston since 2001 thanks to boom times for the increasingly technology-intensive energy industry. The Houston metro area ranks second only to Silicon Valley in the proportion of engineers in its workforce. (11/20/2013 @ 3:44PM , Forbes, "The Surprising Cities Creating The Most Tech Jobs")
Among metropolitan areas with a population of 1 million or more, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio are expected to achieve the biggest overall expansions in employment in percentage terms over the next five years. In each of these Texas metros, high-wage and low-wage job growth are projected to track each other (11/14/2013 @ 3:52PM Forbes "The Cities Creating The Most High-Paid Jobs, And Why They're Good For Low-Wage Workers Too")