| April 2006 |
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| Michigan is ranked the 10th largest Cyberstate in terms of tech employment |
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The Motor City has long been a leader in developing new technologies but outside the car industry business, Detroit has gotten scant attention.
However, Michigan's high-tech industry is making efforts to get its fair share of respect, and as of late can boast at least modicum success.
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The state is ranked the 10th largest Cyberstate in terms of tech employment in the nation, according to a new report from AeA, the nation’s largest trade association for the high-tech industry. The majority of Michigan’s tech employment comes in two sectors: research, development and testing labs; and engineering services.
"Michigan has thousands of highly skilled and talented individuals in the tech industry, helping to keep the Great Lakes State an attractive location for the business of technology,” said Ed Longanecker, Executive Director, AeA Midwest Council.
Although the pieces seem to be in place for Motown’s tech industry to prosper, the state’s high-tech job market has not taken off. Last year Michigan lost 5,200 net tech jobs for a total of 178,000 last year, according to the AeA report.
Much of the state’s high-tech business is centered in the Detroit metro area.
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| “Michigan has thousands of highly skilled and talented individuals in the tech industry” |
| - Ed Longanecker, AeA Midwest Council |
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Tech job listings for the Detroit area on Dice, the leading technology career site, registered a modest one percent increase during a recent three-month period, from 996 in December to 1,005 in March. The average yearly salary for IT workers in Detroit is $65,500. The most sought-after IT skills right now, according to Dice, include Oracle, SAP and Java.
“Most IT workers don’t think of Detroit first when considering their job search,” said Scot Melland, Dice CEO. “But there are some good things happening there.”
Nationally, Cyberstates 2006 shows that the high-tech industry is moving forward.
This year alone should see the creation of 217,000 new tech jobs in the United States, according to Virendra Singh, a senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com. That would make 2006 the best year the industry has seen since it flattened toward the end of 2000.
Singh also expects the job growth trend to remain steady through at least 2010, with an additional 126,000 tech jobs created in 2007 and 123,000 more in 2008.
“Things are looking very good all around,” Economy.com’s Singh said.
If you would like to be interviewed for the next Dice market report, or if you have comments about this article, please contact us at feedback@dice.com.
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