Scott Wolf, a process technician, repairs a station at Garmin’s offices near McNary Field. Garmin has added more than 100 workers since 2013, General Manager Steve VanArsdale said. (Troy Brynelson/Salem Reporter)
The math was easy for Brian Sheridan.
In spring 2014 in Alaska, the database engineer knew what was coming: a stubbornly cold winter, relatively high cost-of-living, and a slip for the state’s oil-dependent economy.
Salem, where he and his family had visited before, became the solution.
“It was like, ‘House prices are cheaper here. Wages are similar to Anchorage,’” the 42-year-old recalled saying to himself. The coast and mountains were an hour’s drive away. “And you have Portland and Eugene,” he said.
Salem’s tech scene is far overshadowed by the software hub of Portland — itself much smaller than the high-tech hives of Seattle and San Francisco — but it may be growing for that very reason.
According to the Oregon Employment Department, Salem has added about 300 tech workers between 2013 and 2016, the latest data available. The city’s total tech sector employment stands near 2,000. The jobs earn close to $70,000 a year, up $12,000 per year since 2013, as well.
Among those workers is Sheridan, who said he “flirted with Seattle and Portland, but cost-of-living and commuting times were too high.”
Sheridan landed at BookByte, a company that buys, resells and rents textbooks. The firm depends on in-house software to inform its purchasing and inventory decisions. Roughly 40 people work there, coding in cubicles on the second floor of a South Salem office.
Bryan Hockett, BookByte CEO, wouldn’t disclose revenues, but said the company has grown nominally over nearly two decades. Its software talent helps it compete against larger competitors.
“Our ability to handle data and write software enabled us to scale,” Hockett said. “It’s a pretty tight team but highly focused on our core business.”
Assembling a tight team is the trick, however. Software and data jobs are in demand across every industry, so potential hires could just as easily find work at a healthcare provider, Nike or some startup in Silicon Valley.
Competition to land talented workers is tight, Hockett said, but he’s optimistic for the same reasons Sheridan expressed: dense metros have appeal, but the costs and pace of a city Salem’s size also has its charms.
“People coming here don’t balk at Salem at all. It’s attractive,” he said. He said California is the company’s “best friend” because so many workers are trying to escape the sprawl and the high prices. “It’s nuts down there.”
Kevin Rich, software engineer at BookByte, works on software that helps the company’s automated processes. The Salem company resells and rents textbooks and relies heavily on data to compete. (Troy Brynelson/Salem Reporter)
Garmin, a Switzerland-based maker of navigation hardware and fitness tracking devices, is likewise growing at its offices alongside McNary Field. It has hired about 100 workers in the last five years. Five hundred people total work there, including more than 300 in the tech sector.
Graduates from regional engineering schools, like Oregon State University, Washington State University or Oregon Institute of Technology, add to its ranks. General Manager Steve VanArsdale said workers from elsewhere in the country are also drawn to the Pacific Northwest.
“For us here, Salem is a definite advantage if we’re looking for engineers that want this type of area and lifestyle,” he said. “We look for people that want it, Salem being not-as-metropolitan as Portland or Seattle. We look for talent that fits here.”
Salem is not immune to the same factors that might hurt its big-city competitors, however. Although wages rose in recent years, housing prices appear to be outpacing them, said VanArsdale.
“Housing is definitely becoming more and more difficult here,” he said. “It’s more difficult to compete with areas where housing hasn’t exploded. Recruiting someone from the Midwest, with experience, finds it difficult for salaries to be as competitive with the housing market higher here than those areas.”
And the obvious downside of having a smaller tech scene is that workers might view it as too quaint, said Hockett. Bigger cities give workers more options.
“If we can find talented people and pay them fairly, we can keep them,” Hockett said. “But in Portland you can throw a rock and hit another developer. Here that’s not the case.”
Growing the scene would be a boon for local governments, said regional economic developers. The 2,000 tech workers in the region are paid $144 million a year. Those dollars ripple through retailers, restaurants and tax rolls.
“That’s funding that goes back into our communities — our state and our local communities — to reinvest and provide services,” said Annie Gorski, Salem’s economic development manager. “Without jobs and without companies investing here, we don’t have that.”
By and large, the average wage in the Salem metropolitan area is about $45,000 per year.
Gorski, alongside Alex Paraskevas at the Strategic Economic Development Corporation, is spearheading efforts to grow the local tech firms already in Salem and to attract new ones. There are about 91 total tech companies, up seven since 2013.
One initiative is LAUNCH Mid-Valley, where cities, counties and schools help entrepreneurs tap into resources — like grants or classes — to help flip a business idea into a company. The program launched in August.
“It’s in its infancy right now,” Paraskevas said.
Sort of like Salem’s tech scene, according to Sheridan.
Having lived in Salem four years, Sheridan, now director of technology at BookByte, said he’s watched housing prices outpace wage growth, but he believes that will level out soon. After that, he sees only more growth.
“I see Salem growing a lot,” he said.
Have a tip? Contact reporter Troy Brynelson at 503-575-9930, [email protected] or @TroyWB.
