I've seen this firsthand and it's real. It's an enormous difference now from what it was when I moved up here, as a software guy and entrepreneur, from Silicon Valley in 1992. 

So what, now we're quibbling here over how many jobs, how many are significant? Say, what? It used to be none. The incubator crowd isn't doing enough? There used to be no incubator crowd. Now we have startups, angel investment, meetups, multiple incubators, and a startup ecosystem. 

Limited impact? Jeez! It's night and day different. Back then the refrain was "What? A software business is Eugene? There's no high tech in Eugene!" in the tone of Tom Hanks' character doing "there's no crying in baseball."  The assumption was that no real startup would stay here. You had to go south. Today you don't. Today there is a here here.