The Burning Glass Institute ranked the Northwest Arkansas region as the No. 2 most cutting-edge midsize metro area.
Growth in NWA is often associated with its largest corporate enterprises such as Walmart, Tyson and J.B. Hunt. Behind that, there is an ongoing evolution of the technology market.
According to the Burning Glass Institute, the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers area is highly ranked due to growth in its tech workforce, which has welcomed skilled workers from across the country.
Keven Rector, an information security and systems support manager at Ozarks Electric, said as the big corporate names continue to grow, the need for people with cybersecurity and information technology expertise grows with it.
“That is not going away,” Rector said. “The more they grow, the more they are gonna need it, they probably need more than they think they need.”
Jia Di, the department head for electrical engineering and computer science at the UofA, said J.B. Hunt, the NWA-based transportation company, hired 200 tech-related interns this past summer. The interns’ fields of expertise range from cybersecurity to computer engineering.
The region’s need for technical expertise creates career opportunities, which offer many UA students a realistic career path — one that keeps them in NWA.
Russell Rathbun, a sophomore computer engineering major, said he is eyeing a career in tech at one of the well-established companies in NWA. He mentioned interest in the familiar names of Walmart and J.B. Hunt but also expressed interest in working for a Fort Smith-based company called ArcBest, which has connections in the region.
“There are a bunch of startups as well,” Rathbun said, “but I am looking more toward the Walmart or J.B. Hunt track.”
Automation within these companies is a driving factor in the need for people with technological knowledge. Walmart enhances its retail product with tools such as self-checkout, which calls for people with knowledge of specific programming skills and IT support, Rathbun said.
The area’s expansion into the technology sector is also beginning to encompass some smaller startups, which Rector has spent some time working with, including a multinational tech company based in New York. He said startups in the area are good at addressing niche issues in the tech space and often get noticed by the big players.
Rector said he considers NWA startup-friendly. Even if startups want to resist a buyout from a larger company, many have the capability of thriving on its own, he said.
“I do not want to say it is the next Silicon Valley,” Rector said, “but we definitely have shades of how Silicon Valley started here.”
Di said a good example of NWA’s startup success was a company called Arkansas Power Electronic International (APEI). The company specializes in high-density, high-power electronic solutions and products based on new and emerging materials.
Following the company’s sustained success, WolfSpeed acquired APEI, but APEI still reside in the NWA area, Di said. They work closely with the UofA and their staff is full of UA graduates.
Many attribute the growth in tech to the population boom the region is experiencing. Growth paired with a more reasonable cost of living attracts talent in the tech world, Rector said.
In the past five years, NWA has remained near the top of the list for fastest-growing communities in the United States, Rector said. Despite rapid growth, the region has yet to see a steep increase in home prices relative to other tech-heavy regions. Living in NWA costs a fraction of what it does in places such as Seattle or Los Angeles, he said.
Rector said he thinks the area is still exposed to the same technology bigger cities are exposed to. Despite not having Apple in its backyard, NWA still gets fiber internet faster than most people in LA do, he said.
“You have that same level of technology, but then you can drive 15 minutes and you are in the middle of the woods without cell phone signal,” Rector said. “Find anywhere else in the United States where you can do that.”