Racine IT Market Overview
The Racine IT Market in 2026
A Production Economy With Almost No IT Employers
Two numbers define this market for a technology buyer. Production occupations employ 9,680 people here, 12.7 percent of local employment against 5.5 percent nationally, a location quotient of 2.30. Meanwhile the entire metropolitan area holds about 300 information-sector jobs, 0.4 percent of payrolls, and computer and mathematical occupations run at 1.6 percent locally against 3.4 percent nationally. There is very little in-house IT capacity in this county, which is precisely why the managed provider matters more here than in a white-collar market.
The Foxconn Site Became a Microsoft Site
The 2017 announcement promised $10 billion and 13,000 jobs against up to $2.85 billion in state credits. A 2021 renegotiation cut that to $672 million and 1,454 jobs for up to $80 million, and WEDC verified 1,242 jobs and nearly $717 million invested as of 31 December 2024, making data servers rather than LCD panels. Microsoft has since bought roughly 1,900 acres of the same land, committed more than $7 billion, and completed its Fairwater data centre in June 2026. The county's largest technology story is infrastructure, not employment.
A Net Exporter of Workers, in Two Directions
Racine County sends 59,740 residents out to work elsewhere, 62 percent of its working residents, while drawing 33,679 in. The largest single outbound flow is 23,046 to Milwaukee County, and 5,515 commute into Illinois. That two-state pull shapes IT requirements: staff work across state lines, and providers serving the county routinely work the whole Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha corridor.
Key Racine Neighborhoods / Submarkets
Downtown
Southside Historic District
Old Main Street
Historic Sixth Street
Northside
Orchard Street
Melvin Avenue
Uptown
West Racine
Lakefront
Racine IT Submarkets at a Glance
Downtown and the lakefront
Monument Square, the Racine Art Museum and the professional services firms around them.
Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant
Co-principal city of the metro and home to much of what carries a Racine address, including the Foxconn and Microsoft campuses.
The industrial corridor
Manufacturing and distribution along the I-94 spine, where uptime is measured in production shifts.
Kenosha and the Milwaukee corridor
The rest of the combined statistical area. Most providers serving Racine work the whole corridor rather than one city.